Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Dec 22, 2010 2:10 pm Does it take you a long time to get hot water to any of your taps? Why does this happen? How does one ensure this doesn't happen? Is there a recommended metrege of plumbing pipes that a certain hot water system supports? Or a maximum distance from the hot water unit? Re: Taking long to get hot water at the tap 2Dec 22, 2010 2:44 pm blue - it all depends how far is your HWS from your kitchen, Laundry and the bathrooms. In our case we had to have a IHWS for our Bathroom - being on the other side of the house. Preliminary agreement 23/11 Contract 22/03 Prestart 06/04 - finalised on 30/04 Unconditional approval 10/05 Demolition 05/07 Slab 26/08 Brickwork 13/09-06/10 Roof frame started 07/10 viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32292 Re: Taking long to get hot water at the tap 3Dec 22, 2010 2:52 pm What is the maximum distance they are allowed to be away from the hot water system? Re: Taking long to get hot water at the tap 4Dec 22, 2010 3:01 pm If it makes any difference this is the one I'm thinking of getting: Rinnai INFINITY 32 Dimensions (mm) : Height 600 Dimensions (mm) : Width 470 Dimensions (mm) : Depth 244 Colours White Factory Default Temperature (Celsius) 55 Water Pressure (kPa) : Minimum 190 Water Pressure (kPa) : Maximum 1000 Gas Rate Min/Max : NG 21/ 250 Flow Rate 25 Degrees C/Max : l/min 32/37 Star Rating 5.3 Connection Sizes Gas/Hot/Cold (mm) 20/20/20 Status Monitor No Dimensions (mm) : Height Inc Brackets 644 Dimensions (mm) : Hot Water Outlet (From Wall) 115 Dimensions (mm) : Hot Water Outlet (Left from Centre) 61 Dimensions (mm) : Cold Water Inlet (From Wall) 99 Dimensions (mm) : Cold Water Inlet (Right from Centre) 52 Dimensions (mm) : Gas Connection (From Wall) 61 Dimensions (mm) : Gas Connection (Right from Centre) 110 Dimensions (mm) : Condensate Outlet (From Wall) - Dimensions (mm) : Condensate Outlet (From Centre) - Dimensions (mm) : Gas Connection Length (From Base) 41 Dimensions (mm) : Cold Connection Length (From Base) 51 Dimensions (mm) : Condensate Connection (From Base) - Dimensions (mm) : Condensate Fitting Diameter - Weight (kg) 32 Re: Taking long to get hot water at the tap 5Dec 22, 2010 3:05 pm not quite sure - but might be worth asking the supplier of the heaters or a plumber. Is anybody a plumber on H1 with some advice for blue here? Preliminary agreement 23/11 Contract 22/03 Prestart 06/04 - finalised on 30/04 Unconditional approval 10/05 Demolition 05/07 Slab 26/08 Brickwork 13/09-06/10 Roof frame started 07/10 viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32292 Re: Taking long to get hot water at the tap 6Dec 22, 2010 5:32 pm Water taking a long time to get to a tap is really just a result of the length of pipe between the hot water service and the flow rate of the tap. Basically the further the tap, or shower from the hot water service the longer the time. Also if you have got a low volume shower head it will take longer because the flow rate is smaller. About the only thing you can do when planning the house is to make sure that the pipe runs from the hot water service are as short as possible. Builders often put the hot water service next to the laundry. a better location is probably next to the most used bathroom A solution if youi didn't organise the locations of bathrooms etc during design, which is costly, is to install instantaneous water heaters near each bathroom. The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Taking long to get hot water at the tap 7Dec 23, 2010 7:54 am ^^ People (including us) are usually not aware of this until they move in (or start reading about it half way into the build ). In our case, the storage HWU is about 1-1.5 m from the kitchen tap, but does it serve this tap first? Of course not. It firstly travels to the top floor to serve the main bathroom, then goes to the other side of the house to the ensuite, then comes back downstairs to laundry, powder and kitchen (and that's the most likely order!). So, having a HWU just outside the kitchen (or laundry, or a bathroom on a ground floor) does not guarantee that these will be serviced first And I don't think we can have any input into this (unless you happen to be a good friend with the builder's plumber and he designs the piping route so it makes most sense to you and how you intend to use the house ). My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Taking long to get hot water at the tap 8Dec 23, 2010 9:13 am Will getting a bigger unit (with a higher flow rate) solve the problem? Re: Taking long to get hot water at the tap 9Dec 23, 2010 10:57 am you will probbaly find the tap has a flow restrictor so having a bigger HWS probably won't solve this. You can get a water recircluation setup installed which basically can cycle the water in the pipes but your pipes need to be setup in a loop with a pump and controlers i think they are best installed at build/design. Also they are not heavily used in Australia from what i have seen. Re: Taking long to get hot water at the tap 10Dec 23, 2010 11:43 am Thanks sirgoat. I've been looking at Smartstart, but really can't see much point in having it. You still have to press the button, wait for the water to warm up and then open the tap. If I have to wait, I might as well turn the tap on and wait :S Ok so it wastes a lot of water, but I'm not sure if water wasted will be more expensive then getting a $500 + system put in, installed + controller etc :S Re: Taking long to get hot water at the tap 11Dec 23, 2010 11:44 am Lex ^^ People (including us) are usually not aware of this until they move in (or start reading about it half way into the build ). In our case, the storage HWU is about 1-1.5 m from the kitchen tap, but does it serve this tap first? Of course not. It firstly travels to the top floor to serve the main bathroom, then goes to the other side of the house to the ensuite, then comes back downstairs to laundry, powder and kitchen (and that's the most likely order!). So, having a HWU just outside the kitchen (or laundry, or a bathroom on a ground floor) does not guarantee that these will be serviced first And I don't think we can have any input into this (unless you happen to be a good friend with the builder's plumber and he designs the piping route so it makes most sense to you and how you intend to use the house ). That is so very true. We stumbled across this issue after researching what pump to get for our rainwater tank. All the pump people said to ensure that the pipe used internally was no smaller than an inch (I think the standard is 3/4 inch) or else no matter what pump we bought we would still have cruddy water pressure (our house is 33m long with water demands at both ends). We brought this up with our builder (btw we were at final plan stage at this point) who then contacted the plumber to do a quote for the larger pipe, and he aknowledged then that we would probably be wasting around 25ltr of water before the hot water came through the pipes!! Given we were on rainwater tanks this was frightening. To cut a long story short, we have now had to change from a SHWS with gas boosters, to a heat pump PLUS we will have a ring main in the ceiling with a timer to circulate hot water around the house at peak times, so that we don't end up wasting so much. This really was an 11th hour change (and thankfully our builder is wearing the cost as it was their oversight) Hope this helps anyone in a similar situation (with a looooooong house) Happy, Healthy Free Range Wessex Saddleback Pigs My doom and gloom paperwork nightmare viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32170 Construction viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43653 Re: Taking long to get hot water at the tap 12Dec 23, 2010 4:14 pm Your water heater is not the problem and changing it will make no difference. Basically you have water sitting in the pipes between the tap and the HWS. Once the tap is open that water needs to flush through before hot water from the HWS comes through. Hot water takes longer to come depending on the distance/run from the HWS to the tap, the flow rate of the tap and the diameter of the pipework. There are recirculating pumps available (check out a plumbing supplier ie tradelink) but they will be expensive. I would try and work out the flow rate of the tap. Replacing the tap with one with twice the flow rate should half the time until the hot water comes on. Goodluck Building an Eden Brae Saville 27 http://karry327.blogspot.com/ Building thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=44247 Re: Taking long to get hot water at the tap 13Dec 23, 2010 6:25 pm While we are talking about "flow rate of the tap" - firstly, is this info readily available for every tap? Secondly, I've noticed a huge decrease in water flow speed in our laundry tap (when compared to old house) - which is a fairly thin builder's stock standard laundry tap. So, I've been looking for a thicker tap with all the other handy characteristics of the standard laundry tap (like almost a 180 deg swivel, wall outlet and a simple shape). It looks like it doesn't exist - has anyone spotted a similar tap ? My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Taking long to get hot water at the tap 14Dec 23, 2010 6:31 pm If the main thing is to avoid wasting tank water one solution is to use Redwater Diverters, see link below: http://www.redwater.net.au/ The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Taking long to get hot water at the tap 15Dec 24, 2010 9:13 am karry327 I would try and work out the flow rate of the tap. Replacing the tap with one with twice the flow rate should half the time until the hot water comes on. Oh god. It really sounds like I can't win I was going to use 7.5 l per min taps in order to try and save some water but if I will have to have it open for ages until hot water comes through there probably isn't much point. But then again I often use cold water only as well so maybe it's still worth it... Ahhh Re: Taking long to get hot water at the tap 16Dec 24, 2010 2:43 pm What about using a higher flow tap in the kitchen only. You can turn on the hot tap as you undress in the Bathrooms and let the hot water run through - no real problems there. It is the kitchen where you use small quantities of hot water often. Higher flow taps here will deliver hot water sooner and not have such an effect on water usage as to fill a sink only requires so many liters regardless of flow. It is when you have high flow taps running for 15minutes in a shower that water usage will shoot up. Building an Eden Brae Saville 27 http://karry327.blogspot.com/ Building thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=44247 Re: Taking long to get hot water at the tap 17Dec 24, 2010 4:56 pm Hi Blue, depending on what tap is causing a problem and access to pipes there is a unit available by Dux called a "everhot" it is basically a pump which connects to your hot and cold water lines at the offending tap you set a timer and when you push a button it pumps water from the HOT pipe to the COLD pipe for the set time this dramatically reduces water waste and when you turn the tap on instant HOT water. You can have these units installed in the roof above a shower is this is were your drama is. Depends how much direct sun it gets. Is there any shading (eaves or trees)? If the sun hits a window directly it doesn't matter too much if it's double or single… 1 12647 The fastest thing a builder will do is bank your cheque, those systems work perfectly with lightning speed, everything else is slow burn. Just the way it is. 1 8702 Can someone please offer some advice? Im DESPERATE. Because I'm completely and utterly exhausted. How long are variations taking with other companies at the moment? We… 0 18435 |