Plumbing a Bathroom? Go Green with Instant Hot Water

If you are about to begin plumbing a bathroom you should consider the benefits of instant hot water with a hot water demand pump. Your family can easily save thousands of gallons of water every year and experience the convenience of instant hot water when you turn on the tap or the shower.

There are three basic types of systems to solve slow hot water problems. There is the traditional hot water circulating system, the warm water circulating system, and the demand hot water system. Not all of them are green although they all save water.

Traditional hot water recirculation

Hot water circulating pumps require looped plumbing from fixture to fixture with a dedicated return line at the last fixture. It’s extremely wasteful of energy requiring the water heater to work harder and more often to keep hot water in the lines. They won’t work with most tankless water heaters.

Warm water circulating systems

These systems have a small pump mounted under the bathroom sink that operates much like a temperature controlled traditional hot water circulating system, except the control temperature is set much lower. The result is instant warm water at the fixture.

To get hot you still must purge the warm water from the pipes. It’s faster but by no means instant. These systems also fill the cold water line with warm water so if you want cold water you must purge the warm water which of course wastes water.

Hot water demand pumps

Hot water demand pumps speed hot water from your water heater to your fixture without running any water down the drain. With a demand system when you want hot water you push a button to start the system and when hot water arrives at the pump it shuts off.

No hot water gets into the cold water line and when you turn on the tap you have nearly instant hot water. With the pump located under the sink, all the fixtures in the bathroom plumbing have faster hot water. Demand hot water systems are all green.

The demand pump should be located at the furthest sink from the water heater and will service any sinks or fixtures operating off of the main trunk line serviced by the pump.

How much any branched-off fixtures benefit from the demand pump depends on the specific plumbing layout. Short branches will have fast hot water and longer branches will take longer. Usually the main trunk line is ¾ inch pipe with the branch piping usually ½ inch pipe. The water travels much faster in the branch piping due to its smaller capacity.

When plumbing a bathroom try to loop the plumbing from fixture to fixture with the demand pump at the last fixture. Any fixtures plumbed in this fashion in not only the bathroom but in the whole house will have instant hot water once the pump shuts off.

Demand pumps are very green products, not only saving thousands of gallons of water, but requiring very little energy to operate. Typically a demand pump will consume less than $2.00 per year in electricity.

Hot water demand systems will operate with tankless water heaters as well. If you are going to use a demand pump with a tankless water heater make sure it produces enough flow to turn on the water heater.

Hot water demand systems can be very economical as well. A good hot water demand system can be obtained for under $200.00 and any do it yourselfer can install one in an hour or so. Some models can be installed with just supply hoses like your sink already uses and you don’t even have to shut off the water to the house… just the supply valves under the sink.

If you are plumbing a bathroom you can go green and install a hot water demand system, save time water and money and experience the convenience of instant hot water when you turn on the tap.