Home: Water: Tap
Thermal hot water valve   (+1, -2)  [vote for, against]
Recycle the cold water.

When I turn on the hot tap at home I can often wait up to 30 seconds watching cold water get wasted down the sink. Sometimes the cold water can be used for brushing teeth, or whatever, but not always.

A simple addition to the washer in a hot tap would be a bi-metal strip coated with rubber for a tight seal. When cold, the bi-metal strip would divert water to a small storage tank/pipe connected to the cold water supply.

The water saving over time would far outweigh the cost of the bi-metal strip and small holding tank/pipe.

[Oh yeah, and the modified tap also has a magic button on the side that plays top 40 music, tells the time, feeds 'free' energy back into your internal combustion engine, blocks pop-up ads and recharges your iPod battery! Sorry, couldn't resist.]
-- not_only_but_also, Nov 16 2004

Bi-Metal Strip http://www.thefreed.../bimetallic%20strip
For those who don't know what a bi-metal strip is. [not_only_but_also, Nov 16 2004]

Hot Water Recirculation System http://www.toolbase...130&CategoryID=1402
[jurist, Nov 16 2004]

Not directly related but we have a small pump that slowly but continuously circulates the hot water throughout the plumbing in the house. Hot water is always nearly instant. I think it's a fairly common feature in houses these days.
-- bristolz, Nov 16 2004


"The water saving over time would far outweigh the cost of the bi-metal strip and small holding tank/pipe." where do you live [not_only] ? I'm not sure that's true.. water is (in my experience at least) very underpriced. If you lost 10 litres a day through this, then it would still take you several years to save up to by your bi-metallic device (which is fine, as long as you don't ever need to get a plumber out to fit it, in which case you've instantly spent more than you might save).

where does this small tank sit ? do you therefore need to have a pump to get the water out again ?
-- neilp, Dec 23 2004



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