Wasting water waiting for hot water???

We conserve water all the time. When getting in the shower, it's hot by the time I get in, and in the sink, it's hot by the time I rinse. Never lost anything.

My circulating system

Better idea might be to install a valve to bleed hot water to the pump inlet on demand.

My install was primarily to avoid frozen pipes. Does work to have immediate warm to hot water.

Yes, just run the water into a pot or sink insert till it is hot enough and save it for something else like toilet flushing. If you have a tub/shower, put the plug in the tub and save the shower water in the tub, bail it out into a bucket and use that for toilet flushing. If only a shower, stick the wand into a bucket till the water is hot enough. Kitchen sink dishwashing into a sink insert, dump into a bucket for toilet flushing.

Like said above capture as much as possible and use it for flushing. We do it in our S&B to conserve, it takes us about a gallon to get hot water in the S&B. JMO

We have an electric water boiler/teapot. Saves power and is fast. I run it into that and use it for dish washing or iced tea.

I sure understand your frustration with this one. We haven't installed anything. The only thing I have done is to attempt to "catch" as much of the water as I can and to reuse it in our front bathroom toilet as flushing water.