How's Your Plumbing?

Look, I don't mean to be personal, but it's something I've been thinking about a bit lately with this cloudy, rainy weather.  If my plumbing layout at No 16 wasn't so minimalist, I'd have been having a lot of luke-warm showers over the past week or two as the less-than-HOT hot water from the tank cooled even more on the way to the shower.

My solar hot water tank doesn't have a booster connected (yet) keep the water in tip top skin-blistering hotness (consensus says tanks should be set at 60 degrees C, even though the Govt says 50).

My situation  is intentional.  There is a booster ready to be hooked up, but when I installed the system, I wanted to test how well the tank worked in retaining heat, when cloudy days prevailed and the water wasn't heating as much on the roof - day by day the temperature slowly drops in the tank. But I have to say, except for one or two small hiccups, there's always been enough hot water (enough to need the cold water tap on) for at least 3-4 days without any Janet Leigh moments in the shower department - even when it's raining and grey outside.  Just a measly hour or two of partial sunshine, and the collectors efficiently up the ante by a few degrees.

I'll connect the booster one day (I'm going to install a manual switch at the circuit board outside, to just flick the booster on in bad weather - at night when power is cheaper - rather than it automatically sensing a degree or two drop and electrically heating the unit during the day, when it's actually fine for comfort levels).  I'll repost this when I sort something out.

So given the variable temperature of the tank at the moment, it's good that there's only a total of  approx 12 lineal meters of plumbing  that hot water has to travel along from the Apricus tubes on my roof to the tank and on to all outlets in the kitchen, laundry and bathroom - not much distance to lose heat along the way.  Plus, all pipes are insulated to improve the heat retention further.

If' you're renovating (or building from scratch, and can go after your best possible scenario) think about ways to keep plumbing lines short for hot water:

- "utility walls" that have plumbing running through, that service both sides (ie shower on one side, basin on the other)

- insulating pipes to reduce heat loss during travel to outlets

- locating your hot water tank inside, where it's less susceptible to heat loss in winter from cold surroundings

- angling your solar hot water panels or tubes (I wouldn't use anything except tubes, having used them for almost 3 yrs now) a bit steeper than normal. Mine are at about 50 degrees from horizontal from memory - makes them more efficient in winter when the suns angle is lower.

And of course, don't forget to check  your plumbing regulations with Council.

AND, keep in mind that sending your partner up on the roof to help with mounting brackets etc, prior to plumber, (when they aren't that fond of heights)  is a great way to turn them into an ex. :) Ian doing a marvellous job to help Kev, despite the momentary lapse in commitment, caught below.