I just googled that and it seems like quite the contraption. Probably not something that you’d want in the Southwestern US.
It was like a hotel shower. I could rinse the shampoo out of my hair in 30 seconds flat. Probably not advised for drought-prone regions, tbf, but the UK is infamously rainy. We should get some benefit.
Not all at once maybe, but you don’t know how long the drain pipes are, or if there’s a dip that holds water. That would freeze eventually, as would any water that’s “stuck” to the pipe afterwards. I can imagine ice building up over time, because it has all the time in the world to get cold, whereas the “flush” of warm water is only there for a few seconds.
What hajario said. Also we now have faucets with aerators that use even less water.
Only if it’s below zero for a prolonged period, which is rare in the UK and even rarer in Ireland.
I did an experiment while shaving this morning. It takes 18 seconds to fill the basin to the level I would use for washing hands, and 29 seconds to fill to the level I use for shaving (just below the overflow) at the flowrate that I would use for washing hands under a running tap (quarter-turn valve halfway open). So that’s the breakeven time - an activity that takes more than that amount of time will use more water with a running tap than with the plug in.
The breakeven time for our small downstairs basin is much less - less than 10 seconds to fill to the overflow level. A bath is not a good comparison as the shape of a bath is very different to that of a basin - I estimate it would take about 20 minutes to fill the bath using the shower.
I once lived in a NYC apartment that was set up like this. Toilet & sink through a bedroom one way, shower at the other end in the kitchen area.
Was it same as Hari_Seldon’s Swiss toilet where there was no hot water there so the shower could tap into the kitchen hot water?
Even here in North America, water is considered unlimited, since I assume the plumbing standards were originally set before the big migration to the drier sunbelt. Most houses I’ve lived in (and many hotels) the hot water has to flow a decent distance from the tank to the tap. The hot water tank is conveniently placed for the builder, not the occupant. (I tested my current house, built 15 years ago, and it’s a gallon of water before the kitchen sink or master bath has hot water.)
I recall reading something that since a lot of very old buildings in Europe did not allow for a utility closet for things like a full-sized hot water heater, some had on-demand heaters which was a smaller unit near the sink?
I used to have the tank in the loft and hot water cylinder system until the tank started leaking earlier this year. Replacing the leaking tank would be a huge problem since the original tank was installed before the roof was put on and a new tank wouldn’t fit through the loft hatch. So I switched to what is known as a combi-boiler. There’s a pressurized system for sending hot water to the radiators and an on-demand system for hot water to the sinks and shower. So when you turn on a hot water tap the boiler comes on. The water takes a little longer to heat up but is more economical overall since you’re only burning gas when hot water in needed.
Years ago, it was common in England to find a gas water heater on the wall above the bath. Often arranged with a swivelling spout that could direct water to bath or sink as required. I can recall staying somewhere where the “geyser” (rhymes with geezer) had to be lit with a taper.
Those geysers could be pretty lethal and are rarely if ever seen now. Many people these days have an electric water heater in the shower as a cost-effective method of getting a hot shower.
These are available in North America, but not that common as forced air is typical for newer construction over radiators since it can perform both heating and cooling. On demand water heaters - both gas and electric - for hot water only are becoming much more common but you need to have sufficient gas or electrical capacity to use them, much more than the normal storage tank.
We had an Ascot gas water heater Ascot water heater | Science Museum Group Collection on the wall by the kitchen sink (disused by my time). My grandparents also had one, and a much bigger one in the bathroom to create hot water for the bath - they were probably installed in the 1930s. They were converted to natural gas in the late '60s (with a sticker on saying ‘this water heater must not be used for periods of more than twenty minutes without the window open’) and went on working a lot longer, probably til Grandma died in the 1980s.
Credit to The Secret Life of Machines for making me familiar with this.
Some of the fancier new houses are built with something called a recirculating hot water system. Sometimes added to older houses during remodeling, too.
Basically, a return pipe from the far-away bathroom or kitchen that takes water back to the water heater to be reheated. Thus hot water that has cooled from sitting unused in the pipe is recirculated and replaced with fresh hot water. So the pipe near the far-away bathroom/kitchen is always kept full of hot water.
Cost of this is an extra pipe back to the water heater, plus temperature sensors and a pump to pump the water back. And slightly more operating cost to heat water, since cooled water is regularly reheated, and some electricity to run the recirculating pump. The benefit is hot water immediately available, even in far-away parts of the house. And slightly less water used, since you don’t have to run the tap until the water gets hot.
One of my favorite series. BTW, Tim Hunkin has a YouTube channel now with lots of good stuff on it (sadly, Rex Garrod died a few years ago).
It can be a pretty significant amount of energy use and expense. Cutting down on standby losses requires a lot more pipe insulation than you’re likely to find in a residential setting, like 4" diameter insulation for a 1/2" pipe. In winter it’s probably a wash since that heat is most likely dissipating into the spaces you’re trying to heat, but in summer you’re losing heat you don’t want to lose and then you’re having to air condition it away as well. That’s why recirculator systems often have timers or switches so they’re not running when they’re not needed.
That’s legally mandated in Germany, for new construction of houses of more than two apartments and with a pipe volume of more than 3 litres between the water heater and any one tap. The reason for that is not convenience/comfort but prevention of Legionella pneumophila growth. The minimum mandated temperature is 60 °C leaving the heater and 55 °C in the return. Branches without recirculation must be below 3 litres volume. This requires a lot of insulation, also between hot water and cold water pipes because the cold water in the pipes must not heat up to temperatures where Legionella thrives.
Most hotels have this, which is why the hot water is virtually instant. I suspect that Legionnaires is partly responsible, but it will also save a good deal of expensive water.
having grown up in the alpines, both my parents house and grandfather’s (all constructed early 1970ies) had a very small 1x1m room for the TOILET and one for the BATH/SHOWER.
bear in mind at that time it was quite frequent that you had just ONE each of those rooms, and part of it was that a person in a “morning session” (and associated olfactorial fallout) would not block the rest of the family from their morning washings/toothbrushings, etc…
on a sidenote … those terrible UK 2 sided taps, probably root from the french “Lavoir” - which was basically a jar and a basin that was used probably up until the early 1900s to “take a shower” - with a washcloth going back and forth between the basin and the body…
so, basically then one was using the waterSTOCK (as opposed to waterFLOW) to clean oneself
and the 2 faucets carried over, b/c of that
Makes sense in this scenario, once you get into the 2 baths scenario - not so much anymore
yep, just thinking of a system that keeps water warm in a 20m long and 0.02m diameter tube while you are off for a 2 weeks vacation in the wintertime … that might make for a crude awakening (if you forgot to turn this feature off)