On Thu, 31 Dec 2015 01:38:12 -0500, Micky
wrote:

It might be. Or she could take a shower in a bathtub with a closed
drain. For one thing you could see how many gallons it really is
(because it might be less than 50, since cold water mixes with the hot
water in the WH and the mixture is probably too cold to shower with
before the entire 50 gallons are used.)

I've always preferred baths over showers. I always let the bath water in
the tub (during the heating season), until it's cold. Then I drain it.
If I leave the bathroom door shut with a tub full of hot water, the
bathroom is 10 to 20 deg warmer than the rest of the house.

I notice my furnace running less often too when there is hot water in
the tub. That hot water acts like a radiator. Why let it go down the
drain?

Then when she got out, all the heat in the water in the tub woudl
eventually be released into the house. When the water was cold, you
could drain it out. (This allows more dirt to settle out of the
water onto the tub, but if your wife is pretty clean, that might not
be much. )

It might take a few seconds more, and an extra squirt of tub cleaner, to
clean the tub. No biggie!!! That saved heat is more valuable!

By the way, if you have some wet and slightly dirty gloves or socks from
shoveling snow, I toss them in the tub after I finish bathing, swish
them around, wring them with my hands and place them above a heat
register to dry.
You dont need to waste energy to run a washing machine and dryer just
for some gloves/socks, and the gloves/socks by the register or radiator
add some humidity to the house too.

More importantly, it puts more humidity into the house that will make
it feel 4, 6, maybe 8 degrees warmer (let me know). When my furnace
has been broken, or when the LL gave no heat, I boil water on the
stove. A big pot that will hold a basketball takes 3 or 4 hours to
evaporate, and has a greater warming effect, and one that fills the
whole house, than just running the stove burner without the pot of
water does, and more than a room heater does, certainly in the same
length of time but in more time too.

Everytime I say this, people here talk about damage from water running
down the inside of the windows, but water like that almost never
happens and no damage has happened, and in my case it woudl be easy to
paint the window sills. But mostly insulated windows are not that
cold.

I usually take a bath every day, and when I'm thinking about it, the
amount of now-warm water going down the drain bothers me.