I would miss having hot shower in the morning as well as an indoor toilet, (but lets not go there!)

Have a happy Monday!

jasper,

Unless someone(s) at your house is/are addicted to a bidet, you have need for hot water to operate your toilet?

Some toilet, it seems to me: never heard of such a system ... what do its advertisers say to sell it? What's the justification?

Oh - your self-esteem was really low that week and you answered three of those hundreds of offers to send Viagra/Cialis - and at an attractive price, too!

Don't tell me you took all three?

That would likely provide a substantial overhang, during non-excited times!

If you got one of those risers that seniors use to raise their bums 6" or so over the usual seat height, would that keep your sensitive part out of the cold water?

Or ... you answered an ad, from Lord knows what source ... the (unregulated) stuff that you got was turbocharged ... and you only took one dose ... and got *more* than you bargained for!?

...

...

...

(Does the resident female in your location have any say in preparations for intimacy?)
___________________

When I gave it this twist,

you got really pi__ed?

Slap me on the wrist,

I couldn't resist!

o j

brass tacks,

Want a warm (even hot) shower in the morning?

Get a timer that'll throw your switch at 4:00 a.m. - or whatever hour you choose.

On the other hand, would you be interested in an electric heater with no tank sitting right under the hot water tap, to provide hot water instantly?

Some time ago the electrically-powered water heater in the basement of the townhouse that I'd lived in for about 12 years went kaput.

The city power people had come in some time previously and installed a timer on the tank to have it heat at 2:00 a.m., when demand for power was low, and they installed an extra insulating blanket over the tank, as well. As incentive, they rebated the monthly rental fee of the heater.

So when the heater quit, I just let things ride.

Then a provincial power agency took over that part of the system, and I told them that the heater at my location wasn't working and that I didn't propose to pay them a monthly rental for no service, so please send a rep to certify the non-operation so that I could avoid paying the rental fee.

No dice - either replace the heater, or have them remove it, or pay the rental.

I didn't want to have it removed, for there was a heater there when I moved in, so if none when I left - could be a problem with the landlord.

Could have bought a heater (as we bought our phones years ago instead of paying hundreds of dollars of accumulated rental over the many years that one phone operated) - but didn't want to do that in a rental home. I expect that the landlord would have been some upset had I removed "my" heater - leaving him with open pipe-ends in the unit.

There was an alternative - I could buy a heater alone, with no tank, to provide immediate heat at a tap, being located within a couple of feet of it. Much cheaper than a hot water tank ... but, wait a minute - I'd need one unit for each tap (3) from which I wanted to obtain hot water (and hard to find a location for the third heater, by the tub/shower). Plus plumbing and wiring problems - in a home not my own.

Same problem with owning it/them, as I'd want to take it/them with me when I moved: similar potential problem with my landlord.

If such units may be available in your area, they might be just what you're looking for.

Hope you have as much hot water as you need, at as low fuel cost as possible and when you need it (rather than when someone else wants to put you into it).

ole joyful

P.S. The Super said that when the new agency came in, they'd remove the timer, (possibly the blanket).

When I called their office, they said that they didn't offer that middle-of-the-night service.

I said that, with all of this emphasis on the need for conservation, they were stupid.

All that she could offer was that they didn't offer that service - no reason why not.

When their guys came to replace the unit - they removed the timer. Removed the blanket, were going to take it with them - I said over my dead body.

They didn't care, left it. I reinstalled it over the replacement (rental) heater. It's still there - I assume, as I moved out a little over a year ago.

o j

Jasper,

City folk are sure strange; they cook outside and go inside.

-0----------------0------------------0--------------------
Joyful man,
That timer thingy...that's ok...but I'm just not that regular...meaning, then I would have to be on some kind of schedule. I would end up having to reset the thing all the time.

Did you ever have one of those heaters installed under the plumbing? I used to have a kind of electric heater installed under the kitchen sink. It was instant boiling water for things like instant soup. Maybe there is a heater out there that doesn't make the water so hot. Is that what you're mentioning?

I get along ok, it's just that I miss the hot water coming out of the tap when I want to wash my hands many times througout the day with hot, sudsy soap.

Still need a vacation

Hey joyful, you need hot water for the toilets here in Alaska. Our water comes right off a glacier and is too cold. We all have mixer valves on the toilets! I even have the hot water plumbed to the outside, so I can use warm water on the plants and have it hotter to put a good glaze on the ice rink in the winter.

Not worth turning the hot water on and off for a family of six. We run the dishwasher at night, last thing. That gives us only 5 hours before someone in the household is up and using hot water.

Now, we have the hot water tied into our hot water heating system. Electric would be way too expensive in my area.

Gloria

Glo,

One learns some new things every day.

Thanks for the education.

As for the super cold water coming into your home, as your homes are above freezing, why would one need to mix heated water with the cold for uses where the body doesn't touch the water?

Is it because the water that was only a few degrees above freezing on entry would frequently freeze while travellling through the walls en route to where it was to work?

As for our timer to heat the water in the tank at 2:00 a.m., I didn't mention it, but there was a button on the control box that you could push if you needed some more heat at other times during the day.

If I remember correctly, it would only work once daily - not so "hot" a plan if one had a family of 6, huh, wherever ... let alone Alaska. Living alone, I never had to find out.

I didn't remember that you were in Alaska previously ... but I can understand the reason for your hobby being quilting.

ole joyful

P.S. Did you add your name on the list called "Where" day before yesterday and yesterday? I don't recall.

I was interested that after jacksmum of New South Wales, Australia, was placed between "New Mexico" and "New York" and I sorted out the list by country ...

... no one else used the separated list - no, I think that one other person did.

o j

brass tacks,

The heaters under the sinks put out water at about the same heat level as one gets from the regular water heaters after the cooled water occupying the lines ran through.

It was not anywhere near boiling.

I don't know what variety of choice there was for settings.

Good wishes to you and yours.

ole joyful

Huh?

I'm in the NorthEast,winters get pretty cold here. Our house came with an oil burner system for heat, including a 300 -plus oil tank hidden in a crawl space under our house. We tried to save money by turning the burner off during the summer and on only when needed for showers and laundry. We went away for a two-week vaction, when we turned it back on we heard a "boom" and a cloud of sooty smoke came rushing out of the burner. A puff-back it's called. Left us a dirty mess to scrub off the walls, lucky no one got hurt. Since then we don't turn the burner off. Oil heat is not totally safe, in my opinion.

Most every home has an instant hot water heater, but they normally call them an electric kettle. You can use it for dishes, cleaning, cooking, etc. You only need to turn on the big hot water heater for showers/baths and the washing machine - although I see no reason why you couldn't just stick a kettle full of hot water in there and let it top up with cold water. I wash almost everything at 30 degrees anyway, and with modern biological powder it comes out perfectly clean.

Kettles use a lot of power, but most all the energy goes in to the water since the element is submerged, plus they don't take very long to boil and have no significant energy losses if you use the water instantly. My old 1950's kettle is 3,000 watt (although I suspect modern ones are higher), which is like turning on 30 lightbulbs at once, but it takes less than 2-3 minutes to boil 3 litres of water, so I calculate I can have around 72 litres of boiling water for 46p.

A whistling kettle will bring back some memories--a kind of treat--and I could get one that could serve as a kind of mirror to see what's not going on behind me. chuckle

Tankless water heater--why would anyone want a bulky water heater...where have I been? The initial price must be why the builder of our neighborhood didn't install them. I'm not about to spend more money--

But I sure do think that the point-of-use would be great for the kitchen sink. (somewhere in the ball park of $500) Yes, a nice new kettle--more my style.

joyful, if the water in a toilet is too cold compared to the heat of the house, you have dripping condensation all of the time. Ruins the floors and makes a general mess in the bathrooms.

Gloria

Whole-house tankless water heaters take a hefty electric circuit or gas supply. My electric unit can pull 120 amps at maximum capacity. It *rarely* does so, but the electric supply must be able to provide that much current if needed. Retrofitting tankless to an existing home can be problematical if the utilities need upgrading. Much easier to install them on a new construction.

I am renting a 3-bedroom 1 level home and the hot water tank is set at a point just past A. I have no idea what temperature this is but it takes a long time for the water to heat up. Once it heats up, though, it's hot enough.

To save money, should I set the hot water tank to a higher temperature or keep things the way they are now?

gloria (with quilt),

Would it work were you to take an old quilt or towel and make a cover for the tank?

If that's not thick enough, make a double or triple layer.

maybe i totally missed something but i don't understand why initially you just didn't adjust the thermostat on the hot water heater. would have saved you the replacement, etc.

my water turns warm in enough time to fill a milk jug or soda bottle, tea kettle or pitcher that i will use to water plants.

Marie26,

I don't believe turning up the thermostat will increase the speed at which your water heats. Such appliances normally turn on at full power during start up, as it gives you hot water faster, and then reduce power when they reach the required setting.

Anyway, once it does heat up your water may be too hot and need mixing with cold to get the ideal temperature. Unfortunatly, the hotter water becomes the less readily energy from the element transfers in to it, thus the efficiency goes down with increasing temperature. It's preferable to heat a large volume of water to the right temperature than try to super-heat a little water and mix it with cold.

You may find that you're a good distance from the water heater and pipe insulation improves the speed at which hot water reaches you. I have a normal tank heater, so the time it takes for hot water to reach me is mostly pushing standing cold water out the pipes and the heat lost by the pipes themselves. Thus your delay may not even be caused by the water heater. Insulation did improve the hot water in my house, and it has allowed me to turn the temperature down a bit now that I'm not passing it through a long metal pipe before using it.

I tried to explain to the neighbor lady how to set her intermatic timer. She said it was broke and she needed a new one. Want's it to run 7am to 7pm as she goes to bed early and gets up early.

It was set 8am to 8pm. It was currently 7am. I switched it to the on position, pulled out the dial and set the 8am tripper on the pointer/arrow. Said there its fixed.

She called me the next morning unbeliving I had fixed it.. full of gratitude. Said it came on at exactly 7:05, asked how will she know what time it will go off. Polish lady, about 65.

Reminds me of the day she insisted & forced me to raise & not lower her mower wheels so she didnt cut the grass so short. Until the following mow day, she was happy.