Posted by Info on August 7, 2005, 1:56 pm
Hot Water Savings
The key to hot water savings... eliminate the waiting.
Every second a person spends waiting for hot water at their faucet /
shower, your water heater is taking in "cold" city water. In addition
to the lighting energy used while the person stands there waiting. A
family of four waiting 1 minute for hot water spends around 97.3 hours
every year "waiting". (Four people waiting 4 times per day, 365 days
in a year, divided by 60 for total hrs) Include a lifestyle fudge
factor and reduce it to 72 hours of "very cold" city water filling up
your water heater needlessly. Let's pause for a moment and imagine
having to stand and watch a faucet waste water down the drain for 72
hrs. . . . Or consider a home which waits only 30 seconds.... that's
still 36 hours of watching water run down the drain.
Install a RedyTemp Hot Water Recirculator, no dedicated return line
required, idiot proof 10 minute "self-install".
Behind the timer is a standard 3-prong wall outlet. Simply replace
the timer with "The Clapper" set the clapper to the "away" mode. Now
when the clapper hear's someone in the bathroom it will auto start the
circulation process.
Or consider using the RedyTemp in the On-Demand mode using a wireless
push-button. Simply replace the timer with a "wireless outlet
control" similar to those used by the elderly when they don't want to
get up to turn on/off lamps. Press the wireless remote control from
anywhere in your house (range 100-150ft) for no-wait hot water
throughout your home.
Return on investment estimated at two years for a family of four which
waits an average of one minute for hot water.
Install a tankless water heater for "endless" hot water and a RedyTemp
for "no-wait" hot water.
On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 17:21:32 GMT, Steve Spence
>Replace lighting with CF's Where appropriate. (all our lighting is CF)
>Place phantom loads (TV, Microwave, Transformers) on switched power strips.
>insulate doors and windows
>add rain rarrels to downspouts for lawn and garden irrigation.
>low flow faucets, shower heads, and toilets.
>high efficiency appliances
>Steve Spence
>Dir., Green Trust
>http://www.green-trust.org
>chrisvillar@hotmail.com wrote:
>> I am very interested in conservation, green living, living independent
>> of the grid, etc. Has anybody compiled a list of simple energy saving
>> measures that have a reasonable return on investment (<5 years). I'd
>> like to start spending a couple hundred dollars a month to upgrade my
>> house. Getting my wife's approval, and to really justify it to myself,
>> I need to have confidence that it is a good investment. Anybody done
>> any work on this?
>>
>> I have a 1600 sq. ft. house in central Texas. Standard 2x4
>> construction. Gas heat, waterheat, and stove. Already switching to
>> compact flouresents as the incandesents burn out. No programmable
>> thermostat but that is because my wife is at home with my daughter.
>>
>> I can get info for our water, electricity, and gas useage if anybody
>> wants to lend a hand or advise.
>>
>> What would really be fun is implement some improvments that will save
>> money in the long run with minimal impact on our lifestyle. My wife
>> will be a reluctant partner in this effort so minimal impact on our
>> lifestyle will be essential.
>>
Posted by Edwin Pawlowski on August 7, 2005, 2:04 pm
> to the lighting energy used while the person stands there waiting. A
> family of four waiting 1 minute for hot water spends around 97.3 hours
> every year "waiting". (Four people waiting 4 times per day, 365 days
> in a year, divided by 60 for total hrs) Include a lifestyle fudge
> factor and reduce it to 72 hours of "very cold" city water filling up
> your water heater needlessly.
Crock of crap, really. While waiting for the hot water for the shower, I
use the cooler water to brush my teeth or rinse my eyeglasses. No wasted
time, no wasted water. Same wit dishes. A quick rinse is OK for the
cooler water too.
--
Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/
Posted by chrisvillar on August 17, 2005, 12:51 am
Info@_RemoveBetweenSpaces_RedyTemp.com wrote:
> Hot Water Savings
> The key to hot water savings... eliminate the waiting.
> Every second a person spends waiting for hot water at their faucet /
> shower, your water heater is taking in "cold" city water. In addition
> to the lighting energy used while the person stands there waiting. A
> family of four waiting 1 minute for hot water spends around 97.3 hours
> every year "waiting". (Four people waiting 4 times per day, 365 days
> in a year, divided by 60 for total hrs) Include a lifestyle fudge
> factor and reduce it to 72 hours of "very cold" city water filling up
> your water heater needlessly. Let's pause for a moment and imagine
> having to stand and watch a faucet waste water down the drain for 72
> hrs. . . . Or consider a home which waits only 30 seconds.... that's
> still 36 hours of watching water run down the drain.
The only time I wait for hot water is in the morning before I shave.
And I'm not really waiting, the water is running while I'm taking a
leak. And maybe I've wasted 4 gallons? At $0.005 per gallon, that's
$7.30 per year in wasted water. What's my return on investment now?
After the shave, the hot water is 4' away from the shower head. By the
time I turn on the shower and walk around the curtain (2 seconds) to
get in, it is already up to temp. So that is zero wait time for me and
maybe 4 gallons of wasted water.
When I give my infant daughter a bath, I turn the water all the way to
hot and rinse the tub with the cold water from the pipe. I'm done
rinsing before the hot water get there but I close the stopper anyway.
When the hot water finally gets to the tap, I let it run all the way
hot for a few seconds to get the tub temp right and then turn the temp
down and continue to fill. Then I put my daughter in. So no wasted
water at all and no wasted time for my daugther's bath.
Let's say I have two school aged kids. Most likely, they are taking
showers back to back so the second child starts the water with the
pipes already "hot". Same situation if two adults are getting ready
for a work day in a separate bathroom. So suddenly a family of 4 with
4 waits per person per day for a total of 16 "waits" is reduced to 2
"waits".
Actually I love the idea of a tankless water heater but for three very
different reasons. There is basically zero savings from reduced water
useage. It is calculable but negligible as I've described above. The
three great things will be 1) the reduced energy bill because I'm not
continually keeping 40 gallons of water hot (and stupidly using that 40
gallons to heat my Texas house or garage), 2) the reduced space
requirements, and 3) the luxury of instant hot water if it can be
installed close to the tap as a result of #2. What I'd like to do when
I build my house is install the tankless water heater in a closet right
next to the master bath. The kids and guests will have to rough it
like we used to do in the old days and wait a minute for hot water.
I'm the one paying the bills after all :)
Posted by trader4 on August 17, 2005, 5:05 am
"There is basically zero savings from reduced water
useage. It is calculable but negligible as I've described above. "
The issue isn't the cost of the water that's wasted, but rather the
cost of heating the hot water that has to run from the water heater to
the faucet every time you first need hot water. It takes quite a few
gallons of water to flush out the cold water in the pipes and get the
pipes warm. The longer the pipe run, the more energy that is wasted.
A tankless unit saves that energy loss and it can be considerable.
Posted by Nick Hull on August 17, 2005, 7:23 am
trader4@optonline.net wrote:
> "There is basically zero savings from reduced water
> useage. It is calculable but negligible as I've described above. "
>
> The issue isn't the cost of the water that's wasted, but rather the
> cost of heating the hot water that has to run from the water heater to
> the faucet every time you first need hot water. It takes quite a few
> gallons of water to flush out the cold water in the pipes and get the
> pipes warm. The longer the pipe run, the more energy that is wasted.
> A tankless unit saves that energy loss and it can be considerable.
>
If it takes 'quite a few gallons' to flush out the cold water then you
are using pipes too big, and probably metal pipes as well. If you use
1/2" plastic pipe there is little cold water to flush out and little
thermal mass to heat.
--
Free men own guns, slaves don't
www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5357/
XML site map
>Place phantom loads (TV, Microwave, Transformers) on switched power strips.
>insulate doors and windows
>add rain rarrels to downspouts for lawn and garden irrigation.
>low flow faucets, shower heads, and toilets.
>high efficiency appliances
>Steve Spence
>Dir., Green Trust
>http://www.green-trust.org
>chrisvillar@hotmail.com wrote:
>> I am very interested in conservation, green living, living independent
>> of the grid, etc. Has anybody compiled a list of simple energy saving
>> measures that have a reasonable return on investment (<5 years). I'd
>> like to start spending a couple hundred dollars a month to upgrade my
>> house. Getting my wife's approval, and to really justify it to myself,
>> I need to have confidence that it is a good investment. Anybody done
>> any work on this?
>>
>> I have a 1600 sq. ft. house in central Texas. Standard 2x4
>> construction. Gas heat, waterheat, and stove. Already switching to
>> compact flouresents as the incandesents burn out. No programmable
>> thermostat but that is because my wife is at home with my daughter.
>>
>> I can get info for our water, electricity, and gas useage if anybody
>> wants to lend a hand or advise.
>>
>> What would really be fun is implement some improvments that will save
>> money in the long run with minimal impact on our lifestyle. My wife
>> will be a reluctant partner in this effort so minimal impact on our
>> lifestyle will be essential.
>>