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Jonathan Kamens
 
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Matt writes:
* Your hot water will get used up more quickly if there are
periods of the day when you're using a lot of hot water.


While I agree with most of your points on hot water.. will it really?
I mean since it's not heating it nearly as hot could it actually get it
"hot" quicker as there isn't as much overhead?


Some tank water heaters have pretty good recovery time, but I can
assure you from personal experience than a couple people taking showers
plus the dishwasher and maybe the clothes-washer running around the
same time can easily exhaust a 40-gallon tank, and that's when the
water's set to 120 degrees, which is the most common recommendation for
safety and energy efficiency.

A shower uses about 2 gallons per minute. If your hot water is set to
120 degrees and you shower at 100 degrees, probably about 2/3 of the
water you're using is hot water, so you're using 1.66 gallons of hot
water per minute. That's 100 gallons of hot water per hour, which is
higher than the recovery rate of the best tank water heaters. Add in
baths, which use a more water than showers, and appliances, and you
can easily use up your hot water. If your heater is set lower, it'll
get used up faster.

We've got a 40-gallon tank. I'm hoping that it wears out and we have
to replace it before two of my four kids get old enough to decide they
need to shower every morning like I do :-).