Stretch wrote:

...my gas rates may be off a bit...

A factor of 10, but that was the UNimportant savings...

OK Nick, you got me on this one! I WAS off by a factor of 10 on my gas
costs. Please pass the salt with the crow!

CHEW, CHEW, CHEW, CHEW, ..... Boy, this stuff is tough!

:-)

Now you might ask yourself what's really going on he

The humid weather is resulting in "sweaty" cold water pipes in our
basement...

...***I find that the condensation only occurs on the first few feet
of pipe in from the ground*** Is it possible that conduction causes the
water in the first few feet of pipe to stay cold all the time leading
to heavy condensation while beyond that the water for the most part
has warmed up...?

I think the OP is saying the incoming water is warming up to the dew point
of the basement air. If condensation never occurs beyond the first few feet
of pipe, even when water is flowing, the pipe is warming flowing water in
real time, which is a much more important saving than the warming of small
amounts of water between uses.

Nick