When you are using a water heater, especially an electric one, the water that comes out is not hot immediately. The usual scenario is that the tap is running ahead of time until the hot water comes out. The wrong thing about this is that there is wasting of water as a result of letting cold water run-off into the drainage while waiting for the water to heat up.
Is there any way to do this without wasting water? Yes. This is achieved by means of what is known as a hot water circulating system. This system will eliminate the need to initially run that water down the drain before the hot water comes out. There are several types of hot water circulating systems in the market, and the following explains what they are.
One is the full-time circulating system. In this type of system there is one pipe entirely dedicated to hot water circulation. This pipe runs past each fixture in the house, and then goes back to the heater. The circulation is accomplished by means of a small pump that propels the water along, ensuring access to hot water from every tap in the house.
This type of system has the disadvantage of it being very expensive. The energy that supplies the pump can run up a costly bill, because the pump is kept on 24 hours a day. But what is more expensive is the cost of heating the water.
One way to minimize cost is to put a timer on the pump, which will then turn off the pump as the timer alarm goes off. The pump turns off on its own when it reaches a set point, and then turns back on when the water drops below the lower set point. Although this helps reduce energy consumption by automatic turn off, there is still the much larger energy loss involved the heat loss generated from the system.
One really big disadvantage of this system is that a long dedicated return line is required, one that runs from each fixture back to the water heater. Having this as part of your plumbing in the house is expensive, and most especially if you have to add it on as additional feature to your home.
Another problem with these systems is that they require a dedicated return line from the furthest fixture back to the water heater to function. This is an expensive option when building a home, and a far more expensive option when it involves adding it on to an existing home.
The second class of circulating system does not need an exclusive hot water return pipeline, because it makes use of the cold-water line to return to the heater.
For the instances where the water heater is situated lower than the rest of the system running through it, such as the heater being in the basement, a gravity-type of circulation can be done.
Since hot water is naturally less dense than cold water, the hot water rises up from the water heater and moves to the fixtures above it, while hot water that has been cooled down goes down through the cold water return line to the heater.
This requires a connection between the two lines, and usually there’s a valve in between them that responds to temperatures. The valve ensures that the hot and cold water won’t mix when using one or other line.
The next type of system is called “hot water demand system”. This involves pushing a button to start the pump, and when the hot water reaches the fixture, the pump turns off.
When comparing these systems according to cost, the demand system is the least costly in operations. Since you only use the system when needed, this makes the demand system the best in terms of cost of operations.
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