It has nothing to do with energy efficiency, and everything to do with UK plumbing. A building’s hot water system is presumed to be subject to environmental contamination, and not considered potable. Only the cold water supply is considered potable.
It’s the same reason why they have separate taps for hot and cold water, while the US uses mixing taps almost everywhere.
Mr_Blott@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The majority of our hot water is on-demand so no. Also, is it more efficient to heat the water, pump it through a potentially cold pipe, only to have to reheat it again? Nope,just heat it where you need it, and with a lower wattage heater
Rodeo@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Heating a volume of water a given number of degrees takes the same amount of energy regardless. Using a lower wattage heater is just going to make it take longer, not save any power.
Mr_Blott@lemmy.world 11 months ago
So if you heat the water in a tank, pump it through a cold pipe to a dishwasher, then reheat it, you’re suggesting you’re using the same amount of energy as heating cold water directly in the dishwasher?
No idea how Americans can’t understand that most of the developed world is decades ahead of them environmentally nowadays 😂
Rodeo@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
I understand the difference, I was pointing out the wattage thing doesn’t really make sense.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 11 months ago
Using gas to heat water is considerably cheaper than using resistive electric. Especially when the electric was historically provided by coal or gas anyway.
Burning gas to heat water into steam to turn a turbine to turn a generator to pump electricity to a resistive element inside a dishwasher is not nearly as efficient as just burning the gas inside a water heater and sending it to the dishwasher. The heat losses incurred while passing the water from a gas heater to the dishwasher are a tiny fraction of the losses incurred in the convoluted processes involved in traditional electrical generation.
Briguy@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Who is “our”? I don’t know where you live dude
orrk@lemmy.world 11 months ago
everyone, ever. unless you are running some industrial operations that require constant hot water, there is no reason for even a large family to be using water continuously, and hot at that