Comment on Wasting water with tankless heater
SheeEttin@lemmy.world 7 months ago
With a tankless heater, there’s nothing to warm up. Hot water is basically instant when it comes out.
How far is your shower from the heater? Usually, long times to first heat are because you have to go through all the cold water sitting in the line before the hot water reaches you.
crozilla@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Yes, that. That’s a better explanation of the problem. Thanks. The shower is way on the other side of the house and up a floor.
OhmsLawn@lemmy.world 7 months ago
They make instant recirculation pumps that cycle the water through the tankless in a loop and stop when the hot water gets back to the pump. We have one. If you don’t already have the return pipes for it, you’d need some additional plumbing work. (Either way, it should be professionally installed).
It’s the same system you’d have for a tank, but it can’t run all the time, or it burns up the heater. You have to trigger it. They make flow switches, but mine (new construction) was cheesed. I just set up a zigbee switch with a 1 minute timer to trigger the pump.
Bell@lemmy.world 7 months ago
If wiring and plumbing allow, install another tankless heater closer to the shower. I just put one into my one bedroom apartment and it was reasonably simple and small.
crozilla@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Unfortunately, the shower has no exposed plumbing and the gas line is back near the ground floor heater.
Fondots@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a shower in the US (assuming you’re in the US) without access to the plumbing somewhere, I’m sure they probably exist somewhere, but it’s not common in my experience, usually there’s a little access panel on the other side of the wall somewhere, maybe hidden in a closet or behind a piece of furniture or something. If there’s not, I’d consider adding one anyway, at some point if you’re there long enough you’re probably going to want access to it for some issue or project that comes up down the line.
They make small tankless electric water heaters that run off of regular 110V outlets for heating a single sink or shower, if there’s convenient electrical nearby you may be able to just hook one of those up.
SheeEttin@lemmy.world 7 months ago
You’ll have to relocate the heater closer to the shower. You can have someone run the gas line to the new location. That’s about all you can do.
You could insulate the hot water pipe, but that will only help when the water in the pipe is already hot, like if someone showered earlier. It only extends the time the water already in the pipe remains hot.