Olaf wrote:

That connection doesn't necessarily need to be hooked near the hot water
tank. A short run straight to the cold feed for the kitchen and a pump in
that run would work and could potentially be much easier to install. The
pump would move the 'stale' water from the hot water line through the cold
water line back to the heater. I believe there are kits with thermostat
controlled pumps even for this kind of hookup. Then the pump doesn't have to
run all the time.

And one might add a motion detector near the point of use.

Nick