Hot Water Guy

Hot Water Recirculation VS Tankless Water Heaters – Not Compatible?

2011-06-27T21:53:00.000-07:00

Typically, hot water recirculation systems with a few exceptions aren’t compatible with tankless hot water heaters. Hot water circulating systems were designed to work with storage type  water heaters. Without the tank full of water

Hot Water Flow Rates with Tankless Water Heaters and Storage Heaters

2011-06-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

Hot Water Flow Rates with Tankless Water Heaters and Storage Heaters  The flow rate of the water in a pipe, and the diameter of the pipe determine the velocity of the water traveling in the pipe, and thus the amount of waiting time

Using a Chilipepper with a Dedicated Hot Water Return Line

2011-06-12T10:17:00.000-07:00

Hot Water Demand Systems and Dedicated Return Lines Are Compatible For home owners who have a residential hot water circulating system and would like to convert the system to a demand system to save energy, reduce their carbon foot print and be green as far as water and energy conservation go, here is how to do it. Traditional residential hot water circulating or recirc systems waste a lot of

Why Are Tankless Water Heaters So Expensive?

2011-04-07T12:02:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine who installs tankless water heaters recently wrote an article that I think many of you might find interesting. You can find the original article here: Tankless Expenses Tankless water heaters are hi tech appliances with multiple microprocessors, electro mechanical valves, temperature sensors, flow regulators and more. The unit cost is about the same as a good storage tank

Control Your Hot Water Demand System with a Flow Switch

2011-03-23T22:48:00.000-07:00

I’ve had a number of customers inquire about using a flow switch to control their Chilipepper hot water demand systems. Many of them also have tankless water heaters. The idea is that you could briefly turn on the hot water tap and immediately shut it off, which would turn the Chilipepper on and then you wouldn’t need to press a button. When you hear the pump shut off you know you will have

Living With A Tankless Hot Water Heater

2011-03-11T22:09:00.000-08:00

Living With a Tankless Hot Water Heater Using hot water from a tankless water heater is not the same as a using hot water from a tank type water heater. If you haven’t experienced living with a tankless water heater, it may take some getting used to. Hot Water Temperature Characteristics of Storage Water Heaters With storage water heaters when you turn on the tap the hot water begins flowing

Understanding Your Residential Hot Water Plumbing System

2011-03-03T18:23:00.000-08:00

httYesterday I received the following email about how to plumb the hot water in his house and here are his questions along with my answer which is a bit long. I'm about to build a 3 bath home in the Knoxville, TN area. Down there, they use PEX plumbing. I've been wanting recirculating hot water ever since I spent time in Santa Fe NM where it's required. How many Chilipepper pumps would I want.

Freeze Protection with a Chilipepper?

2011-02-20T23:15:00.000-08:00

I got this message from our site yesterday, and I though it might be of interest to some of you. Water line coming into the house froze up due to two (2) days of record setting cold weather. Water lines meet code for depth, but the frost level went deeper than ever before. I was wondering if anyone makes a recirculation pump to attach to the cold water inlet inside the house that can keep the

Comparing Tankless and Storage Watger Heaters for the Beginner

2011-02-04T00:21:00.000-08:00

Beginners Guide to Tankless Water Heaters Tankless water heaters have become very popular over the last few years, but most people don’t know much about them, or storage water heaters either for that matter. Hopefully after reading this blog you will be able to make an intelligent decision about whether you should convert to a tankless or stick with a storage tank type water heater. Let’s take

Control Your Chilipepper with the 110 Volt Wall Outlet

2011-01-26T14:53:00.000-08:00

Activating Your Chilipepper with the wall outlet. We frequently get emails and phone calls from customers who want to use the wall outlet to control their Chilipepper pumps. The Chilipepper ships with a 6 foot two-wire control cable and a push button to connect to it. In normal operation the control wire is connected to one or more buttons wired in parallel, or to a UM506 X10 remote receiver

Interesting Emails From Our Customers with Our Answers

2010-12-23T00:54:00.000-08:00

I thought I would put up some of the letters we get from our customers asking questions about the Chilipepper hot water demand system along with our answers. So here are a few recent emails.. I've removed the email addresses and only use their initals not their names for obvious reasons... <!-- google_ad_client = "pub-9589216442548153"; /* 300x250, created 8/7/09 */ google_ad_slot = "3347015286

Problem with Radiant Heating and Tankless Water Heaters

2010-11-09T13:55:00.000-08:00

A customer recently described a problem, actually two problems he was having with his hot water system. It was an interesting situation so I though I would describe his problems and provide a solution utilizing a Chilipepper Hot Water Demand system of course. His first problem was that his house is plumbed using a manifold type plumbing layout with a ¾ inch supply line to the manifold, and he

Using the Chilipepper Pump with a Dedicated Return Line

2010-10-23T00:53:00.000-07:00

If your home is already equipped with a hot water circulating system and your system uses a standard circulating pump with a dedicated return line then you can easily replace the circulating pump with a Chilipepper Hot Water Demand Pump. Pump Installation Step one is to remove the old pump and install the Chilipepper in its place. The Chilipepper pump must be installed using either hoses or

Green Plumbing - Making Your Residential Plumbing System Greener

2010-08-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

If you are planning on building a new home then now would be a great time to plan your plumbing layout for an energy and water efficient plumbing system that will end up saving you a whole lot of money and add convenience to your life. If you already have a home, then there are still economical steps you can take to improve your plumbing efficiency and have a greener system environmentally and

A.O. Smith Voltex® Hybrid Electric Water Heaters (Heat Pump)

2010-08-27T22:23:00.000-07:00

The Voltex hybrid water heater mates a heat pump water heater with an electric storage water heater. Heat pump water heaters are very efficient. The operate much like your refrigerator or air conditioner. They pull heat out of the air and instead of transferring it to back to the air as your air conditioner does, it uses it to heat water. Pulling latent heat out of the ambient air is much more

GEOSPRING GE Hybrid Water Heaters (Heat Pump)

2010-08-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

The GeoSpring hybrid water heater manufactured by General Electric is an electric storage type water heater with a heat pump mounted on top. Heat pump water heaters work just like heat pumps in refrigerators and window air conditioners. Its much less expensive to move heat around than it is to generate heat with electricity. The heat pump water heater uses a heat exchanger to cool the air and

A.O. Smith NEXT Hybrid Water Heaters (Tankless)

2010-08-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

The A.O. Smith hybrid water heater has a small "buffer tank". A.O. Smith isn’t saying what size the tank is, but rumors are that it is around 15 to 20 gallons. With a buffer tank the unit can deliver hot water faster since it doesn’t have to heat the water first, there is sufficient hot water in the tank to begin sending water to the fixtures right away just as a storage water heater would do.

Hybrid Water Heaters - Combination Gas Tankless & Storage Tank

2010-08-23T15:03:00.000-07:00

There are several manufacturers of hybrid water heaters that use a combination storage tank and tankless water heater. The idea is to eliminate some of the problems associated with tankless water heaters while still taking advantage of the positive side of tankless heaters like high energy efficiency and endless hot water. By using a much smaller tank the standby losses are much smaller than

Hot Water Guy: Preview "Hybrid Water Heaters - Combination Gas Tankless & Storage Tank"

2010-08-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

Hey bill, check this out...Hot Water Guy: Preview "Hybrid Water Heaters - Combination Gas Tankless & Storage Tank"

Heat Pump Hybrid Water Heaters

2010-08-23T00:47:00.000-07:00

Heat Pump Hybrid Water Heaters are basically an electric water heater with a heat pump mounted on top. There isn’t much new about a heat pump water heater with a 40 or 50 gallon tank. They have been around for over 40 years. A heat pump water heater works just like those awful air conditioners in motel rooms. Instead of blowing air through a heat exchanger to warm or cool it, the heat pump water

The Best Tankless Water Heater

2010-08-09T23:14:00.000-07:00

Which is the best tankless water heater will depend on who is purchasing it and for what application. The best tankless water heater for your cabin in the mountains’ will not be the best one for your 4,500 square foot home in Florida. It may be a different model for the same home in Colorado. For some people the best tankless hot water heater will be the one that saves the most energy, or the

Comparing Tankless Hot Water Heaters to Storage Water Heaters

2010-07-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

Tankless water heaters are a whole lot different than traditional storage or tank type water heaters. They are often considered green because they don’t have the standby heat losses associated with tank type water heaters and are therefore more energy efficient. More about energy and water conservation as related to tankless water heaters later. Tank type Water Heaters Tank type water heaters

Tankless Water Heaters Waste Water!

2010-07-25T00:27:00.000-07:00

Tankless Water Heaters Waste Water Compared To Storage Heaters As is well advertised, tankless water heaters save energy. Tankless water heaters do not have a tank full of water slowly leaking out heat energy 24 hours a day. Gas tankless water heaters usually don’t have standing pilot lights. Endless hot water One of the benefits, possibly the biggest benefit, is endless hot water. There are

Instant Hot Water – What Are The Benefits and Is It Really Green?

2010-07-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

Instant hot water must be defined. I see advertisements for instant hot water in ads for tankless water heaters, hot and warm water recirc and circulating systems, hot water demand systems, and point of use water heaters. Truly instant hot water would be for instance if you have a traditional full time hot water circulating system with the proper plumbing layout. You would have hot water

Flushing Your Water Heater and the Truth about Sediment

2010-07-23T00:28:00.000-07:00

Is your water heater making odd noises? Does it seem you run out of hot water sooner than you used to? Maybe it’s time to flush the sediment out of your water heater. I often see it stated that a build up of sediment in the bottom of your gas water heater leads to lower efficiency. This would at first seem to make sense. The flames are heating the bottom of the tank, and if there is a thick