Hi,
I have a ski cabin with a 60 gal water heater. There are two showers. This house was built originally for a couple, but when I use it I have as many as 14 guests stay at a time during ski season. Even if people take quick military showers, when you get to the last few people they end up with cold showers. Not sure if this is due to the heater capacity, or if due to the mountain cold water (probably just above freezing) that is flowing in to the tank. To make maters worse, this heater runs off slow burning propane and is at high altitude - seems to take anywhere from 2-4 hours for the tank to get hot even at max temperature setting.
There is not a lot of room anywhere to put a second tank, so
What are my options to enhance capacity ?
I've heard that the on demand systems have flow problems. Has anyone tried putting a on demand system between the water main and the input to a conventional heater such that the incoming water is much warmer ?
Tend to use this cabin on the order of 30-40 days during the Winter when this is a problem. When the house is empty we turn the heat down to bare minimum. So energy cost is not a super big concern -- main issue is I want people to be able to take a nice hot shower after a long day skiing.
Any other ideas or comments appreciated, or if you can point me to some existing threads which cover this topic, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks!