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Hot Water Recirculating Loop Posted by Bill Homer [Email] (#3427) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Bill Homer) on Tue, 4 Feb 2014 14:12:37 In Reply to: Hot Water Recirculating Pumps, Justin VanAbrahams [Profile/Gallery] , Tue, 4 Feb 2014 13:10:34 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
While redoing the master bath a few years ago, I asked the plumber about this subject, as the 2nd floor master bath is at the diagonally opposite location in the house from the basement hot water heater. Since the wall was already opened up, he just added a small diameter return pipe and tied it in to the bottom of the hot water heater at the drain spigot - he put the spigot out on a "T", the center leg of the "T" attaches to the thin return pipe. Gravity does the circulation work, i.e. colder water has higher density and will sink, causing a circulation loop - no pump! I also insulated all of the exposed hot water pipe that I had access to in the basement, did not cut into any walls to insulate the vertical pipes that I did not get to initially.
This has worked well for the last several years; we get hot water in the shower within ten seconds on a cold morning, less time for hot water at the sink. Yes, this probably uses more gas to keep the water in the pipes warmer, but I can't say that I have noticed this. We have relatively high water bills here, and I'm not letting the shower run for several minutes while warming up, so the tradeoff seems OK.
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