Revised post re: hot water taking tolong to get to faucet

[DIY]

Hi all,
After some poking around,from the WH runs 27' of 3/4" CPVC piping then at that point the piping reduces down to 1/2" copper piping going to each fixture (shower/tub faucet HOT DIVERTER VALVE COLD,Kitchen sink swivel type HOT/COLD,Toilet,Lavatory sink HOT/COLD) and that 1/2" copper line is 5' in length. I can reduce/re route the 3/4" piping by 8'. According to a plumbing estimate i got today to try and get hot water to the faucets much quicker than the 30 seconds it takes now I was told reducing the now 3/4" hot line down to a 1/2" will just make it even slower getting to the faucets. He said your only solution here is a recirculation pump. No room for one withh the setup here, nor is It needed I have been told by a few other plumbers.

 

[Jadnashua]

1/2" line as your supply for all of the fixtures would not be able to provide enough volume to use multiple items. Well, you'd get water out of all of them, but the pressure would be poor. One at a time, and maybe two - okay. Take something like a vanity sink - typical gpm is less than 2. 27' of 3/4" pipe holds about 0.6gallons. so, .6/2=18 seconds. Now, it takes a bit to warm up the pipe as well, so 30-seconds is about right.

If you can install a return line with the proper slope, you might be able to get recirculation by natural flow, but a recirculation system is probably your only choice.

What some people do is put a small electric tank close to the main users, then feed that with hot. The supply in the small tank give you hot closer to the point of use, then the hot from the main heater finally shows up. But, if you don't have room for a recirculation pump, I doubt you'd have room for a small tank.

The recirculation systems don't take up much room...you could normally make it fit and it would solve your problem. Insulate the pipes, put the thing on a timer or occupancy sensor, and have hot water when want it.

 

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[DIY]

Jadnashua,all fixtures (kitchen sink,tub/shower,toilet,bathroom sink are not used at once) sorry i did not mean for my explanation to mean that....(although even with two fixtures used at the same time the way it is piped now work great)From what i have been told from plumbers the 27' of 3/4" piping to where the pipe reduces down to 1/2" for each fixture is correct. For now i can reduce/re route a portion of the 27' length of 3/4" hot line,so i'd end up with 19' of 3/4" hot line? I did not think moving a WH over nearly 4' for a future washer/dryer would cause near this kind of trouble.

 

[Jadnashua]

Moving the WH likely had no impact. Now, one thing that may not have been on the old WH install is a heat trap on the output of the WH. This preents convection losses by stopping that normal effect. They are required in many places, and recommended in all. Your old installation may not have had them, allowing the hot water to migrate up the pipe somewhat. If the new install has some, you might be able to remove them, and it would help, but you'd be wasting energy all of the time. I'm very pleased with my recirculation system.