"Phil Sherrod" wrote in message
news

On 29-Mar-2004, Bill Vajk wrote:

Your numbers are nice and thanks for posting the info,
however it seems to me 114 is a little on the low end,
with 120-125 being more common and I run my domestic
hot water at 140F.

I ASSume you are providing hot water for a complete bathroom and that your
guest would be taking a bath or shower.

I would suggest that you just place a switch at the water heater. When you
open the room, you turn on the power to the heater. With 4 kW coming in,
you can get water for hand washing within a few minutes.

You don't really need a two pole switch but you can get heavy duty 2 pole 20
amp switches for less than $20 and it might come in handy if you service the
heater (To set the temperature on most water heats you have to uncover BOTH
thermostats. It's a good idea to have the power completely off when you do
this.

If you only power the heater when you have a guest you just don't have to
worry about standby losses and you reduce that chance of something BAD
happening when no one would be around to turn off the water.


I agree. If this was my primary water heater, I would probably bump the
temperature up to 125. I may change it later.

Well, if you only used when you have a guest, the higher temperature setting
would let your guest take a longer shower without running out of hot water.