Metering Domestic Hot Water Usage

Post by **Lightning** » Wed. Nov. 24, 2021 6:40 pm

So your mixing valve is Infront of the electric tank I assume? But again, it doesn't really matter .

Post by **Lightning** » Wed. Nov. 24, 2021 6:51 pm

hotblast1357 wrote: ↑
Wed. Nov. 24, 2021 6:28 pm
I would estimate that my electric hot water tank hovers around 170-185 degrees, so it probably takes quite a bit of cold water to bring it back down to 125.

That just means that you have a larger buffer before running out of hot water from the tank.. but since (I assume) you feed preheated hot water to the tank from your plate coil, energized by your coal boiler, that you have endless hot water till you run out of coal..

hotblast1357 · Post by **hotblast1357** » Wed. Nov. 24, 2021 7:51 pm

My mixing valve is after my electric tank, it is the last thing before my fixtures.. yes I feed boiler temp water into cold inlet of electric tank.

Post by **Lightning** » Wed. Nov. 24, 2021 9:15 pm

I mix before the tank, but either way it all works out the same.

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Wed. Nov. 24, 2021 9:44 pm

Solar DHW has ways to control, measure, collect and graph all this info. Pretty well thought out system and software.

Post by **Lightning** » Thu. Nov. 25, 2021 8:34 pm

Well... I thought this was gonna be fun until my grandson took a 22 minute shower that used 33.6 gallons of DHW. But now at least I know that my shower head uses 1.5 gallons per minute of DHW plus whatever cold is mixed in at the tub. Time to hunt for a high efficiency shower head..

Post by **Rob R.** » Thu. Nov. 25, 2021 8:46 pm

Our new shower has a Delta shower head that is rated at 1.8 gallons per minute. I was skeptical it would be enough, but so far so good.

Hambden Bob · Post by **Hambden Bob** » Thu. Nov. 25, 2021 9:01 pm

.JPEG | 256.2KB | 30898.jpeg

Dear Diary... It's Thanksgiving Night. I'm Reading Posts From The Coal Forum. I Think I've OD'd On L- Tryptophan Via Da' Turkey... They've All Gone Mad,Trying To Meter And Cost Out Domestic Hot Water.... Send Help,Can't Last Much Longer...

Post by **Lightning** » Thu. Nov. 25, 2021 9:04 pm

Bob, that's freakin hilarious!!

tsb · Post by **tsb** » Thu. Nov. 25, 2021 9:06 pm

Does Mrs. Bob have a similar outfit ?

Hambden Bob · Post by **Hambden Bob** » Thu. Nov. 25, 2021 9:15 pm

Yeah... Sent Her Shoppin' At "Fredrick's Of Hambden".. Bout As Stimulating As As The Girls Of Conneaut,Ohio In their Carhart Bikini's!! Sorry,didn't mean to hijack this actually fine thread,but I thought my head was going to explode!! The Breadman has really served up the goods on this one!! Good Show,Lee! Larry most definitely would be Proud!!

warminmn · Post by **warminmn** » Thu. Nov. 25, 2021 9:44 pm

Im just glad HB had clothes on this time instead of being nude like last year...

I dont have a boiler but am still finding this a little interesting, the water quantities used. Im thinking I need one of those shower heads.

Post by **Rob R.** » Thu. Nov. 25, 2021 10:01 pm

warminmn wrote: ↑
Thu. Nov. 25, 2021 9:44 pm
I dont have a boiler but am still finding this a little interesting, the water quantities used. Im thinking I need one of those shower heads.

It is a lot easier to see what takes BTUs in a home when you are hauling the coal and ash. Domestic hot water can be quite a load, in many houses it exceeds the heating load.

tsb · Post by **tsb** » Fri. Nov. 26, 2021 7:25 am

I don't have a garage so when the van is iced up I use a garden hose hooked up to the DHW system to de-ice it like a jet plane. If you got coal fired hot water, use it.

Post by **Lightning** » Fri. Nov. 26, 2021 10:03 am

I also had an idea of a heat reclaim system. Turns out that other people have done it. The basic principle is to run your cold copper pipe thru a stretch of drain plumbing from the shower. It becomes a heat exchanger as warm water passes around the copper cold line. Could reclaim 30-40% of the heat going down the drain... But I dunno if I'm that ambitious lol plus it would turn one of constants into a variable and reek havock on my numbers