Geysers ... why make them so hot?

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Fudzy

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Does any here actually need scolding hot water? I've turned my thermostat down to 40°C. I've found I just need to run the hot water in and my bath is perfect and I'm using it at almost half was it was originally running at (before I turned it down to 60°C). Best part is when I go for a bath I don't need to worry about it being too hot or cold cos its perfect by the time I get in.
 
Fudzy said:
Does any here actually need scolding hot water? I've turned my thermostat down to 40°C. I've found I just need to run the hot water in and my bath is perfect and I'm using it at almost half was it was originally running at (before I turned it down to 60°C). Best part is when I go for a bath I don't need to worry about it being too hot or cold cos its perfect by the time I get in.
Click to expand...

True.
You will have to turn it up in winter though.
The incoming water will be just above freezing point.
If there is a need to run 2 baths of water,you might not be able to run the second bath as the water in the geyser would be too cold.

You should not have the problem in summer though.

65% in winter should be fine.
 
ah, but now you are removing 100 litres of hot water from the geyser instead of only 50 litres of hot water (thumb suck figures..) for a typical bath

so you now have to warm up 100 litres that has just entered the geyser....albeit to a lower temperature...

someone else can do the math, but i am not sure you will be saving too much, if any
 
Piepalook said:
True.
You will have to turn it up in winter though.
The incoming water will be just above freezing point.
If there is a need to run 2 baths of water,you might not be able to run the second bath as the water in the geyser would be too cold.

You should not have the problem in summer though.

65% in winter should be fine.
Click to expand...

Lol, I wish Durban had a freezing point :D
 
BiteMe said:
ah, but now you are removing 100 litres of hot water from the geyser instead of only 50 litres of hot water (thumb suck figures..) for a typical bath

so you now have to warm up 100 litres that has just entered the geyser....albeit to a lower temperature...

someone else can do the math, but i am not sure you will be saving too much, if any
Click to expand...

You are correct.
It would be interesting to do the actual test and compare the two methods, in order to establish wich method would conserve the most energy.
 
Well I'll give you my results when I get them. My girlfriend and I usually share a bath so the actual use of hot water in litres is quite little.

Biteme's post has me thinking though. How would you work out the energy used per lt to varied temperature? There must be a science boff out there that knows how long x lt of water takes to heat up to y degrees celcius?
 
the other thing that got me thinking after my post is the volume of the geyser.

if you run it at 40, nd put say half the geyser capacity into the bath at once, then the geyser is 50% full of 40c water, and very quickly gets topped off with 50% of tap water.
so the geyser water will now be at an average of the two.

but if you had a moerse geyser, and the bathfull of 40c water accounted for 10% of geyser capacity then the 40c water should only drop 10% or so in temp..to 36c...

i wish i wasnt a bit drunk already so i could do the maths properly:-)
 
Fudzy said:
Well I'll give you my results when I get them. My girlfriend and I usually share a bath so the actual use of hot water in litres is quite little.

Biteme's post has me thinking though. How would you work out the energy used per lt to varied temperature? There must be a science boff out there that knows how long x lt of water takes to heat up to y degrees celcius?
Click to expand...

I know they measure it in BTU's.
Same as a airconditioner.
Not my field though.

Anybody knows?
 
About bacteria.
I suppose most bacteria can survive 40 degree water temp.
I would think you can create a nice breeding medium at 40 degrees.
 
The specific heat capacity of water is about 4200 J/(kg K), which means a 3kW thermostat will take about 52.5 minutes to heat up 150 litres from 25 degrees to 40 degrees.
 
sahopeful said:
The specific heat capacity of water is about 4200 J/(kg K), which means a 3kW thermostat will take about 52.5 minutes to heat up 150 litres from 25 degrees to 40 degrees.
Click to expand...

And at how long from 25 to 60 degrees?
 
sahopeful said:
The specific heat capacity of water is about 4200 J/(kg K), which means a 3kW thermostat will take about 52.5 minutes to heat up 150 litres from 25 degrees to 40 degrees.
Click to expand...

Almost 3 units?
Expensive!

Thanks.
 
Piepalook said:
About bacteria.
I suppose most bacteria can survive 40 degree water temp.
I would think you can create a nice breeding medium at 40 degrees.
Click to expand...

E. coli grows optimally at 37C (adapted to human body temperature) so yes, 40C wouldn't be a good idea :p

If you're 5 people in one house with one geyser, upping the temperature will ensure that there's enough warm water for everyone (if everybody takes showers :p) since you'll be using less warm water. :)
 
You might want to try and get the water warmed up before it goes into the geyser. I've seen people use thermal energy for that (they dig a hole in the backyard sorta)
 
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