How do water boilers stay hot while a shower is running?

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I take long hot showers after bike rides, so I’m used to the feeling of the water going cold in a shower. What’s interesting to me is that this happens fairly quickly, seemingly toward the end of the supply of water that was hot when you began showering.

But i’ve been thinking about boilers and it’s not clear to me how this works. It occurred to me that maybe the tank only begins refilling with cool water from the pipes once it runs low — but the tanks in most places I have lived are in the basement and don’t have obvious pumps attached. If the tank weren’t full I don’t think you’d be able to maintain constant water pressure upstairs. At the same time, the hot water seems to stay hot for 30+ minutes, even as the tank is presumably refilling itself with cold city water. How does this work? Thanks!

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Anonymous 0 Comments

How does it work with places like hotels? Sometimes hundreds of showers with many guests using many at once? Is it multiple boilers or one huge boiler providing constant hot water? At any decent hotel you seem to never run out of hot water.

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