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Posted by io01vq5q
- January 25, 2011, 09:23:44 AMSupercharge Your Water Heater - Add a Hot Water Pump for Faster Hot Water,You are not allowed to view links.
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Have you ever had to stand shivering in the cold morning air waiting for hot water with your arm outstretched, fingers extended into the cold stream of water. It seems to take forever for the water to get hot. Speed up your hot water with a hot water circulating system.
Traditionally, if you had a hot water circulating system, it meant that you had a hot water pipe that ran in a big loop from the outlet of the water heater to each fixture one after the other,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, and then back to the inlet of the water heater through a small pump. By continuously pumping water through the loop you have instant hot water at every fixture.
This is very convenient. Hotels and motels have hot water circulating systems; otherwise it could take hours to get hot water with such long pipes as they have.
However,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, instant hot water is also very expensive. Not only do you have to pay for the energy to run the pump continuously for long periods of time or even full time, but you also have to pay for the heat energy being radiated into the environment from that big loop of hot water piping. The cost of heating the water is considerably more than the cost to run the pump.
If you have a tankless water heater, a traditional circulating system will void or substantially reduce the warranty protection since the water heater which is normally off most of the time will be operating nearly continuously when used with a circulating system.
There are a number of manufacturers producing hot water circulating systems that utilize the cold water line as the hot water return line.
Some of these pumping systems use small pumps that pump water very slowly,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, and are temperature controlled. The pump turns on when the water temperature drops below a set point, and then shuts off when the water temperature in the pipe reaches another set point. This keeps the water your entire piping system full of luke-warm water. The water is warmer near the water heater and colder the further you get from the water heater, but it is tepid through out the piping system.
Most folks don��t really want the cold water pipe full of warm or tepid water. You don��t get ��Instant Hot Water�� as the manufacturers claim. I think they should be honest and call them ��Instant Tepid Water Systems��. The Lang Auto-Circ and The Grundfos Comfort System are two such systems,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, and the Hot Water Lobster is another. The Hot Water Lobster doesn��t have a pump, but relies on the fact that hot water rises, and the Lobster valve has to be substantially higher than the water heater for the system to work.
Unfortunately these systems consume much more energy since you are heating that big loop of piping and return line and its surroundings. The cost of the energy will far outweigh any monetary savings from the water conservation aspect.
Have you ever had to stand shivering in the cold morning air waiting for hot water with your arm outstretched, fingers extended into the cold stream of water. It seems to take forever for the water to get hot. Speed up your hot water with a hot water circulating system.
Traditionally, if you had a hot water circulating system, it meant that you had a hot water pipe that ran in a big loop from the outlet of the water heater to each fixture one after the other,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, and then back to the inlet of the water heater through a small pump. By continuously pumping water through the loop you have instant hot water at every fixture.
This is very convenient. Hotels and motels have hot water circulating systems; otherwise it could take hours to get hot water with such long pipes as they have.
However,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, instant hot water is also very expensive. Not only do you have to pay for the energy to run the pump continuously for long periods of time or even full time, but you also have to pay for the heat energy being radiated into the environment from that big loop of hot water piping. The cost of heating the water is considerably more than the cost to run the pump.
If you have a tankless water heater, a traditional circulating system will void or substantially reduce the warranty protection since the water heater which is normally off most of the time will be operating nearly continuously when used with a circulating system.
There are a number of manufacturers producing hot water circulating systems that utilize the cold water line as the hot water return line.
Some of these pumping systems use small pumps that pump water very slowly,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, and are temperature controlled. The pump turns on when the water temperature drops below a set point, and then shuts off when the water temperature in the pipe reaches another set point. This keeps the water your entire piping system full of luke-warm water. The water is warmer near the water heater and colder the further you get from the water heater, but it is tepid through out the piping system.
Most folks don��t really want the cold water pipe full of warm or tepid water. You don��t get ��Instant Hot Water�� as the manufacturers claim. I think they should be honest and call them ��Instant Tepid Water Systems��. The Lang Auto-Circ and The Grundfos Comfort System are two such systems,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, and the Hot Water Lobster is another. The Hot Water Lobster doesn��t have a pump, but relies on the fact that hot water rises, and the Lobster valve has to be substantially higher than the water heater for the system to work.
Unfortunately these systems consume much more energy since you are heating that big loop of piping and return line and its surroundings. The cost of the energy will far outweigh any monetary savings from the water conservation aspect.