[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Hot Water Return Revisited WAS Windows

[Lawrence Lile]

1. Personally, I'd rather not put my toungue on an old dirty pipe. <GRIN>

2. Although the heat loss will be small, most any hot water return system will be less efficient than a non-hot water return system.

3. There is another type of hot water return system that uses a small pump at each load.  You pump the hot water line into the cold water line through a one-way valve.  The pump is limited by a thermostat.  The user presses a button to get hot water.  This recycles the water that the user would have wasted down the drain, waiting for hot water, and so you could argue it is more efficient than a stock plumbing system.  At over $100 a whack, it is only for special situations (long pipes to the kitchen, for instance) or money-is-no-object green homes.

--Lawrence Lile


> -----Original Message-----
> From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org [mailto:greenbuilding-
> bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Gennaro Brooks-Church
> Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 4:43 PM
> To: Clarke Olsen
> Cc: greenbuilding at listserv.repp.org; Nick Pine
> Subject: [BULK] [Greenbuilding] Hot Water Return Revisited WAS Windows
> Importance: Low
>
> I spoke to an HVAC person over the weekend who is in my NaSBAP class
> and he claims he has run the numbers on a hot water return system
> where once the return water reaches a set temperature the pump cycles
> down to a slow trickle. He claims the electricity at that level is so
> small you could put your tongue to it and the heat lost through the
> well insulated water pipes is negligible.
> I'm not sure about the heat lost through the pipes. But the
> electricity being low does sound right.
>
>
> Gennaro Brooks-Church
> Cell: 1 347 244 3016 USA
> www.EcoBrooklyn.com
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 4:42 PM, Clarke Olsen <colsen at fairpoint.net> wrote:
> >> The energy saving move here is to have one button simultaneously turn on
> >> the camera AND
> >
> >   that pump bringing the hot water to the tap.....
> >   Clarke
> >
> >> Good question...... I'd like to hang a flat-screen TV with an outdoor
> >> camera there, but why should it run when nobody's in the kitchen? I could
> >> turn it off along with the lights using a half-hour motion detector, but how
> >> can I turn it on without pushing a button to see the picture?
> >>
> >> Nick
> >>
> >>
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