gmctoyman wrote:
I did mine mainly for boondocking. Tee into hot water line at galley wit a 1/4" line to the inlet side of the water pump. In that line put a 12v selanoid valve. Control that valve with a remote control on/off switch with 2 remotes, one in the bathroom, one in the galley. Push the button and circulate water from the water heater, back to the tank/pump inlet, count to 20 and water is hot. It can be used on city supply but need to make sure you don't forget that it's on, it will over fill the water tank.
This is what I was thinking. Our WH is at the rear of the TT so the shower is fine but you waste 1/2 gal or so at the kitchen faucet waiting for hot water. If I teed into both hot and cold at the kitchen faucet and connected those lines with a bypass line that had both the solenoid valve and a separate pump with an intermittent contact switch (press and hold for "on").
So pressing the button would open the bypass solenoid and turn the pump on at the same time circulating water from the hot feed at the faucet back through the cold line. Hold button for 20 seconds then release, no danger of leaving it on.
Energy usage would be the same, cold water is still entering the HW heater to replace the hot you are using, the only difference would be that the cold water is coming from what is sitting in the HW line not from the tank. Benefit would be water savings when boondocking with no extra energy cost.
Thoughts?
