For home owners who have a residential hot water circulating system and would like to convert the system to a demand system to save energy, reduce their carbon foot print and be green as far as water and energy conservation go, here is how to do it.
Traditional residential hot water circulating or recirc systems waste a lot of energy. The cost of heating water is generally substantially higher than the cost of the water itself.
With a hot water demand system you will have a wait for the hot water, and although the wait is shorter than with a non-pump residential plumbing system, there is still a waiting period before the hot water reaches the fixture. Once that wait is over then when you turn on the tap you will have nearly instant hot water. The length of the wait depends on two things, the plumbing layout, and the power of the pump being used.
Installing a Demand System with a Dedicated Hot Water Return Line
Typically a traditional hot water return line consists of a pipe connected from the hot water supply pipe at the last fixture to the inlet of the water heater. Usually the pump is located at the water.
Replacing the existing pump with a Chilipepper hot water demand pump is very easy to do. Remove the old pump and plumb in the Chilipepper. Use hoses to connect the Chilipepper inlet to the same fitting that was hooked to the old pump's inlet and do the same with the outlet.
You can then either hard wire the buttons to the various fixtures, or if you don't want to string wire in your attic or crawl space or there are other impediments to hard wiring start buttons, use an X10 remote control system for starting the pump from any location. Insteon remote control can also be used but Insteon stuff is pretty pricey.
What to Expect - Operating Your Hot Water Demand System with a Dedicated Return Line
There are differences in the way a hot water demand system and a hot water recirculation system work. .
Since hot water is continuously circulating the loop stays full of hot water. Since a hot water circulating system wastes so much heat energy lots of home owners use timers and or temperature controls to reduce the operating hours and thus reduce the energy wastage.
A timer can be used with the circulating pump to shut if off during periods of no or little use. This does of course save oodles of energy, but is quite inconvenient if you happen to need hot water during one of those periods that the system is turned off.
Another method used to reduce the energy wastage of recirc systems is to have the pump turn on when the temperature drops below a set point and turn off when it reaches an upper set point. The problem is that if you reduce the temperature low enough to realize significant energy savings you don't end up with hot water in the loop, just warm.
With a hot water demand system, when you want hot water you must push the start button and then wait for the hot water to arrive. The hot water will of course, reach the first fixture in the loop first, and then each fixture along the loop until the pump senses the arrival of hot water.
When the Chilipepper detects a temperature increase of 3 to 12 degrees, depending on the sensitivity setting, it shuts off. If you again push the button the pump will again shut off when it sees a second temperature increase... which typically would only be a second or two because the hot water has arrived.
Once the temperature hits 96 degrees or above the pump locks out and won't restart until the water temperature in the pump drops below 96 degrees.
Due to the time it takes hot water to cool off in the piping and the pump there can be short periods of time where the occupant would like to use the demand system to get hotter water than what is in the loop but the pump won't respond because the water is just above 96 degrees. 96 degree water is lower than human body temperature and therefore will feel cool, not hot. Typically that time period would be 20 minutes or so.
That's all there is too it. Be a little more green, conserve water, save time, and install a hot water demand system in your home today!
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