On Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:06:51 -0800 (PST), ransley
wrote:

On Feb 27, 11:43*am, " wrote:
On Feb 27, 12:26?pm, "DGDevin" wrote:

wrote in message

...
On Feb 27, 11:14?am, JosephB wrote:

do you mind the delay bettween opening valve and getting hot water?

There's a fix for that, you can put a sensor in the bathroom that detects
when someone enters the room and tells a circulating pump to fill the line
with hot water, so when you open the tap hot water comes out.

you could get a regular tank unit for perhaps 400 bucks.

And then pay to have it heat water all day every day including when nobody
is home.

actually the stand by losses are tiny, and in the winter they help
heat your home

And in summer they also heat your home, but I would think the amount
is small. My tank has 2 1/2 inches of foam all the way around,
although perhaps less in the bottom and on the top.

I have an apt where I have a pump I shut off because it added 30% to
the bill, few people have fully insulated pipes in walls so standby
losses are great.

When you have the circulating pump. When not, the pipes and the water
inside them cool off after the hot water is turned off.

For that matter, the cold water pipes and the water inside them warm
up when the cold water is turned off. At least where it is cooler
where the water pipes are buried than in the house, which is most
places most of the time. I sometimes run the cold water for a while
so I can get a cold drink out of the bathroom sink and I realize that
I've changed all the water in the pipe to colder water and cooled the
pipes too, and all that has to be reheated in the winter. Plus every
time I flush the toilet. I wonder how much money that is costing me,
compared to say, going down stairs, and taking cold water from the
refrigerator, or the tap water that first comes out plus ice.

I have plastic drain pipes so I don't think there is much of an issue
there.