This morning I turned on the hot water tap in my shower like I always do. It must've taken two minutes for the hot water to arrive from the basement water heater all the way to my shower on the second floor of the house. After the shower, I waited another minute at the sink so I could shave. I pondered how much water I waste each morning waiting for it to get hot. Bathroom plumbing solutions? I could use one. My problem is typical of residential plumbing.
There are costly heaters that attach to sink plumbing that will deliver hot water fast and waste less water but the trade-off is that they use additional electricity. I'm trying to be green here with few options. This is not one of Roto-Rooter's traditional plumbing problems. I can do a few things to help. The most obvious thing is to add some pipe insulation around all of the exposed hot water lines running through my basement. It will help keep the hot water in the lines hot for a longer period of time. There must be twenty feet of exposed copper hot water pipe without insulation that would probably cost me all of $4.00 at the hardware store. It's a start!
