Fast Hot Water

[Dennis Slater]

Living in the desert makes me very conscious of wasting water. Running
water 3 minutes or more to get the water hot enough to shower in or even
to wash my hands or, yes, the dishes in the sink is a big waste to me.
I have looked for a solution to the problem and the best thing I have
found for the money so far is the Chili Pepper Appliance. It is pretty
simple to install and operate and claims to provide hot water within 20
seconds. Best of all, in my opinion, it can be controlled by X-10 using
a UM506 - X10 Universal Module. The cost with the module would be
around $200 not including adding an outlet if necessary. Chili Pepper's
web site is here: http://www.chilipepperapp.com/.

I think that I could use X-10 to turn my gas water heater on (in the
morning) and off (at night or when we don't need hot water and when we
are gone) then use X-10 to start the Chili Pepper when I needed it
during the day.

I am a Home Automation newbie. Any thoughts, pitfalls, experience with
this, or pointers to articles about this type of project?

[Dweeb]

On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 22:21:43 -0700, Dennis Slater wrote:

> Living in the desert makes me very conscious of wasting water. Running
> water 3 minutes or more to get the water hot enough to shower in or even
<remainder of shameless plug deleted>

Yeah but how long will you then wait when you want cold water?
Or wait for the shower to stabilize to a comfortable temperature?
Sounds like a dumb idea!

[hoagini@yahoo.com]

We have the Metland system installed. It has a remote accessory that
you put anywhere. It's by the bed so when you get up, hit the button,
and you will have hot water at the shower by the time you get there. We
also have the Takagi gas tankless water heater. With the two working
together, no wasted water always heating up, and instant hot water
without having to wait. No automation needed. You could set up a module
to hit the button for you at times but it's not necessary. Pricier than
your model but over time, it has paid for itself in water and gas
costs.

Rich

Dweeb wrote:
> On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 22:21:43 -0700, Dennis Slater wrote:
>
> > Living in the desert makes me very conscious of wasting water.
Running
> > water 3 minutes or more to get the water hot enough to shower in or
even
> <remainder of shameless plug deleted>
>
> Yeah but how long will you then wait when you want cold water?
> Or wait for the shower to stabilize to a comfortable temperature?
> Sounds like a dumb idea!

[Andrew Gabriel]

In article <pan.2005.01.13.15.42.51.852858@dweebsrus.org>,
Dweeb <dweeb@dweebsRus.org> writes:
> On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 22:21:43 -0700, Dennis Slater wrote:
>
>> Living in the desert makes me very conscious of wasting water. Running
>> water 3 minutes or more to get the water hot enough to shower in or even
> <remainder of shameless plug deleted>
>
> Yeah but how long will you then wait when you want cold water?
> Or wait for the shower to stabilize to a comfortable temperature?
> Sounds like a dumb idea!

A similar scheme exists in UK for large installations. However,
there are significant differences, such as the heated water loop
is kept isolated from the cold water supply, and the heated water
loop has to have good thermal insulation on the pipework or you
end up losing a lot of energy. A small pump drives the loop from
the heated water store end. In some very old systems, the loop
was constructed to run itself using gravity (flow pipe high up,
return pipe low down and into the bottom of the heated water
store). You would only find this in large commercial premises.

Where you don't have such a scheme, something else which makes
a difference to the volume of run-off water is the pipe size. An
unnecessarily large pipe will waste a larger volume of run-off
water, and waste more energy as it later cools down a larger
volume of replacement water. Again, thermally insulating the
pipe will mean that on some occasions the water will still be
hot enough when it wouldn't otherwise have been so.

--
Andrew Gabriel

[Mick]

I'll ask a simple question

Why is a pump required. What if the chilipepper was replaced with a
valve only, I supoose that would require a dedicated return line to the tank

Mick

Dennis Slater wrote:
> Living in the desert makes me very conscious of wasting water. Running
> water 3 minutes or more to get the water hot enough to shower in or even
> to wash my hands or, yes, the dishes in the sink is a big waste to me. I
> have looked for a solution to the problem and the best thing I have
> found for the money so far is the Chili Pepper Appliance. It is pretty
> simple to install and operate and claims to provide hot water within 20
> seconds. Best of all, in my opinion, it can be controlled by X-10 using
> a UM506 - X10 Universal Module. The cost with the module would be
> around $200 not including adding an outlet if necessary. Chili Pepper's
> web site is here: http://www.chilipepperapp.com/.
>
> I think that I could use X-10 to turn my gas water heater on (in the
> morning) and off (at night or when we don't need hot water and when we
> are gone) then use X-10 to start the Chili Pepper when I needed it
> during the day.
>
> I am a Home Automation newbie. Any thoughts, pitfalls, experience with
> this, or pointers to articles about this type of project?

[B Fuhrmann]

"Mick" wrote ...
> I'll ask a simple question
>
> Why is a pump required. What if the chilipepper was replaced with a valve
> only, I supoose that would require a dedicated return line to the tank

The water won't circulate .

[Mick]

read the specs nd it 110V only, any 240V (230V) units similar out there (for
Australia)

Mick

Dennis Slater wrote:
> Living in the desert makes me very conscious of wasting water. Running
> water 3 minutes or more to get the water hot enough to shower in or even
> to wash my hands or, yes, the dishes in the sink is a big waste to me. I
> have looked for a solution to the problem and the best thing I have
> found for the money so far is the Chili Pepper Appliance. It is pretty
> simple to install and operate and claims to provide hot water within 20
> seconds. Best of all, in my opinion, it can be controlled by X-10 using
> a UM506 - X10 Universal Module. The cost with the module would be
> around $200 not including adding an outlet if necessary. Chili Pepper's
> web site is here: http://www.chilipepperapp.com/.
>
> I think that I could use X-10 to turn my gas water heater on (in the
> morning) and off (at night or when we don't need hot water and when we
> are gone) then use X-10 to start the Chili Pepper when I needed it
> during the day.
>
> I am a Home Automation newbie. Any thoughts, pitfalls, experience with
> this, or pointers to articles about this type of project?

[Don]

The water certainly WILL circulate without a pump. I have such a system in
my home. Basically it is a pipe running from the most distant hot water
faucet back to the cold water input of the water heater. Since hot water
goes up and cold water goes down, it does circulate very nicely. I have
been using it for about 5 years and never had a problem. I always have hot
water even at the farthest faucet within 3 seconds.

Entire cost was under $10.

I did use the Chili Pepper for about a year and just got tired of having to
turn the pump on a couple minutes before I wanted the hot water. It did the
job but now I do nothing and always have instant hot water.

--
Don K9SOA

www.k9soa.net
Home of JEANNIE
The House That Listens
My voice controlled automated home
as seen on HGTV and
in Home Automation and Kentucky Living magazines


"B Fuhrmann" <b-fuhrmann-usenet@mplsfridayDELETEskate.com> wrote in message
news:10udum2s4b66h65@corp.supernews.com...
> "Mick" wrote ...
>> I'll ask a simple question
>>
>> Why is a pump required. What if the chilipepper was replaced with a
>> valve only, I supoose that would require a dedicated return line to the
>> tank
>
> The water won't circulate .
>
>

[Mark]

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 16:48:33 -0600, "B Fuhrmann"
<b-fuhrmann-usenet@mplsfridayDELETEskate.com> wrote:

>"Mick" wrote ...
>> I'll ask a simple question
>>
>> Why is a pump required. What if the chilipepper was replaced with a valve
>> only, I supoose that would require a dedicated return line to the tank
>
>The water won't circulate .

Convection?

I can get reasonably warm water to circulate via convection in my boiler when
the power goes out. I open all the zone valves and let the gas cycle. It's
not the best heat, but better than no heat.

I don't see why this would be any different.