our new house will be over 70 ft long with the kitchen/washer
on one end and two baths on the other...another bath in the
middle.....question would it make more sense to have 2 small
hot water tanks, one on either end, or just one big one on
the kitchen/washer side.

thanks

paul

AskMeNot wrote:


our new house will be over 70 ft long with the kitchen/washer
on one end and two baths on the other...another bath in the
middle.....question would it make more sense to have 2 small
hot water tanks, one on either end, or just one big one on
the kitchen/washer side.

thanks

paul



I'd put one big one between the 3 baths (closer to the 2 at the end) and
insulate the pipes to the kitchen/washer. When you use hot water in the
kitchen and washer, you use a lot of hot water at once and it also
doesn't matter so much if you have to let it run a 10 seconds to get
hot. In the bathrooms, you want the water to be hot almost instantly,
and you often only run a little bit of hot water.

I'd also run 1/2" pipe to the kitchen/washer hot water if the local code
doesn't make you run 3/4"; you don't care so much about the volume
dropping when both are open at once, and the 1/2" pipe will deliver hot
water faster because it only has half as much water standing in it
between uses.

If you do use 2 water heaters, plumb the inlet of the small tank with
hot water from the big one to dramatically reduce its recovery time.

That's my opinion, anyway,
Bob

2 or 3 Bosch or Takagi gas tankless water heaters will save you the most
in operating costs. Mine is giving me a 4 yr payback

"AskMeNot" wrote in message
...

our new house will be over 70 ft long with the kitchen/washer
on one end and two baths on the other...another bath in the
middle.....question would it make more sense to have 2 small
hot water tanks, one on either end, or just one big one on
the kitchen/washer side.

thanks

paul

My old home was like this, I installed an recalculating pump at the farthest
bathroom. I would get up hit the button which ran an timer. The pump would
turn on and pull the hot water to that sink. Since I got up first it worked
fine. Took 2-4 minutes depending on the season, winter longer. After my
shower the pipes warmed up enough that no one else noticed much.
What I really worried about was the heat loss in the pipes. My pipes were
underground and the home was built in 1969. Insulating the pipes if possible
will help wonders over the life of the home on energy bills.

"Tom" wrote in message
...
Paul wrote:our new house will be over 70 ft long with the kitchen/washer
on one end and two baths on the other...another bath in the
middle.....question would it make more sense to have 2 small
hot water tanks, one on either end, or just one big one on
the kitchen/washer side.

thanks

paul

How about well-insulated pipes with a small recirculating pump? If it's a
new
house, of course. Tom
Work at your leisure!

my house is about 110' long and this is what i did. very much more
economical than having the expense of buying 2 water heaters, and paying to
keep 2 tanks hot.. you can put the pump on a small appliance timer to save
even more.