Hot Water Recirculation – Instant Hot Water Systems Explained
Hot water recirculation systems are often referred to by a variety of names, all meaning pretty much the same thing. Recirc pumps, recirculation pumps, recirculating pumps, and circulation pumps are all the same thing.
They all refer to the practice of circulating hot water through your plumbing so that you have quick hot water and don waste water running it down the drain while you are waiting. As with most good things there are trade offs with hot water recirculation systems.
First, let’s examine a basic recirculation system and get familiar with how it works. The system consists of the water heater, a pump, and a loop of pipe coming from the outlet of the water heater, going from sink to sink in a looped fashion, and returning from the last sink back to the pump which has its outlet connected to either the inlet to the water heater or to the drain valve.
Recirc pumps
Often called recirc pumps, as well as recirculation pumps etc. the hot water circulating pumps are designed to slowly circulate the hot water through the piping at a low velocity. There is no need for high flow since a nice low flow still keeps the water piping hot through the entire system. High flow rates run continuously can also lead to pipe erosion and eventually require replacement of the pipes.
Instant Hot Water
As you can see, such a system will provide you with nearly instant hot water. This can save tremendous amounts of water that would have been run down the drain while you waited for the hot water to arrive at the fixture. The penalty you pay is in the cost of the energy consumed keeping your giant radiator system hot.
The water heater has to fire up more often and for longer to keep the temperature from falling as the heat energy is let loose on the environment.
You can minimize your energy costs by putting the pump on a timer so that it only runs when there are people around that may want to use hot water. Leave it off late at night and during the day if no one is home during the day. It still wastes a lot of energy but you can easily cut your losses in half in most cases.
The downside is of course, if you want hot water when the pump is not running you will have a lengthy wait. If you don’t have a length wait you probably didn’t need a hot water recirculation system to begin with.
Another way to control the traditional hot water recirculation systems is with temperature control. Have the pump turn on when the temperature drops to some pre-set value, like 100 degrees, and when the temperature reaches 120 degrees turn the pump off. The temperature sensor is called an aquastat, and usually clamps onto the hot water pipe near the pump.
Since you still have piping full of hot water for long periods of time you are still wasting a lot of energy.
If you do have a hot water recirculation system you should insulate all of the hot water piping to minimize the heat loss.
Tankless Water Heaters
Tankless water heaters generally don’t work with hot water circulating systems since for one thing most hot water pumps don’t produce enough flow to turn on tankless water heaters. They usually require at least ½ gallon per minute to operate.
Hot water recirc systems also cause the water heater to cycle on and off frequently since there is no tank for storage. With many brands of tankless water heaters a hot water circ system will void the warranty.
Tankless water heaters take longer to deliver hot water than tank type water heaters and so it’s too bad hot water recirculation systems don’t work with them.
Well that’s about it for hot water recirculation systems, a water heater, a pump, some hot water piping and a few faucets. Don’t forget the pipe insulation.
Questions and Answers
Water conservation products for cold water conservation are prolific. There are low flow fixtures; actually these are now mandatory in most areas, low flow shower heads, water conserving appliances, low flow toilets and other flow restricting devices.
What is green plumbing? Well, green plumbing when applied to residential plumbing layouts, would mean plumbing that reduces your energy and or water wastage; an efficient plumbing system.
If your home has long hot water pipes then it can take a long time to get hot water, which can be quite annoying. However, an easy, low cost solution to get you your hot water much more quickly is available. It’s a solution that speeds up your hot water, and saves you thousands of gallons of water a year.
Low flow fixtures cause the hot water to flow through the pipes more slowly, and so it takes longer to get your hot water. Slow hot water can lead to water wastage and even energy wastage. Low flow fixtures can also create problems with tankless water heaters.
See how you can conserve water and energy with an ecofriendly bathroom.
AUSTIN, TX…In today’s market, many manufacturers offer products made with recyclable materials that are more energy efficient, offer better water conservation and are Energy Star-compliant. In addition to being better for the environment, consumers may even get state and local rebates and tax breaks just for purchasing these products.
In the past 10 years the modern bathroom industry has become one of the most dynamic industries in the home and garden niche. Other than the home automation circuit some of biggest advances have been in the bathroom remodeling industry.
Consumers are always looking for ways of saving money on standard household repairs. This being the case, if you are planning to hire a plumber, you will be glad to know that there are a number of things you can do to get quality plumbing services at affordable rates.
Keeping shower in the bathrooms is an excellent and healthy idea. But keeping only shower without attractive shower curtains is of no use. Once the plan arrived to place Shower then along with that order for shower curtains also and organize together.
An average house has several rooms. Each of these rooms is usually meant for certain functions. Some of the common rooms in most houses are the sitting rooms, bedrooms, dining area and the bathrooms
Hence the bathroom vanities ate the items in the bathroom, or in other terms we can say that bathroom vanity is the place where you put anything you need to use when you are in bathroom: tooth brush, toothpaste, towels, toilet paper, bottle of perfumes and also the cleaning solutions, but a bathroom vanity is also the best furniture piece for a good looking bathroom.
Free fun trivia about movies, actresses, the Oscars, Hollywood and including Dolly Parton, Goldie Hawn, Bette Davis, Jim Carrey, The Day of the Jackal, The Deer Hunter, Liar Liar, and more! Test your trivia knowledge with this fun filled entertaining trivia quiz of the day.
Free fun trivia about Movies, Actresses, The Oscars, Hollywood, Cinemas, Actors and More.
Challenge your bible knowledge with this easy twenty nine question trivia quiz. The answers are at the bottom of the page. Good luck
The Voltex hybrid water heater mates a heat pump water heater with an electric storage water heater. Heat pump water heaters are very efficient. They operate much like your refrigerator or air conditioner. They pull heat out of the air and instead of transferring it to back to the air as your air conditioner does, it uses it to heat water.
Heat pump water heaters work just like heat pumps in refrigerators and window air conditioners. Its much less expensive to move heat around than it is to generate heat with electricity. The heat pump water heater uses a heat exchanger to cool the air and the recovered heat from the air is put into the water with a second heat exchanger.
Discuss this Article
Comments on this article