A hot water recirculating system is designed to move hot water throughout the home. This ensures that it’s available on-demand in whatever bathroom or kitchen area it’s needed at the time. This is instead of having hot water only in one place and needlessly being transported along water pipes where it is subject to cooling before it even reaches the faucet.
The circulation system is intended to avoid some of the cooling effect by distributing the water through the plumbing system. Water travels a shorter distance to reach a range of pipes and eventually faucets, and shower heads in the case of the bathroom, rather than only going a single, long route to its final destination.
With water recirculation, there are two systems. It’s necessary to pick between them. The first uses a pump that works using electricity to push water through the pipes and the second uses gravity and benefits from a process called thermos phoning for more deeply information check at http://sumppumpguides.net/best-hot-water-recirculating-pump-reviews/.
On-demand system
With the demand-controlled system, the idea is that it initially circulates hot water through pipes, but later can reverse the direction to return the water back to the water heater to be reheated again.
There are sensors and switches that get activated based on motion and sensors detecting when hot water is required and initiate the process to send it out. One sensor confirms when the hot water has arrived where it’s needed and turns off the heater to save energy.
Others know when water should be returned because its chilled and flips the check valve sending water back in the other direction.
The process of sensors, motion activators and check valves prevent someone running cold water until it gets hot, which saves energy. Water that has gotten colder inside the pipes that was not needed is sent back to the home’s water heater to be reheated, as need. This prevents water wastage and reduces water bills for the whole house.
While this system is very efficient, it does mean that hot water doesn’t get delivered instantaneously. It’s the second fastest system in that sense.
Gravity-Used system
The gravity designed system is simpler by design and relies on earth’s gravity rather than complicated pumps to recirculate water. Along with gravity, the system also uses thermos phoning which basically means that hot water rises because heat rises, and cooler water naturally falls with gravity.
The system is cleverly designed to separate hot water from cooler water using both gravity and thermos phoning to both provide hot water whether it’s need and recirculate colder water back to the water heater. A check valve is used in this design too in order to prevent return returning to the water heater when it’s not supposed to.
One requirement with this system is that the water heater must be lower than the taps supplying hot water because heat rises. Therefore, the water heater most likely must be on the ground floor or basement level for this system to work. However, the hot water supply happens sooner than when using a pump-based system.