Why do some houses take time to heat the water while others have it near instantly?
In: Engineering
Not sure where you are but in the UK this mainly comes down to the type of heating system.
Larger houses or older places usually will have a basic boiler and a storage tank that stores hot water. The tank is a big copper cylinder about 5ft tall covered in insulation usually in a cupboard somewhere. It often also has an electronic immersion heater that keeps the water hot if it’s not used and starts to cool. In this case the time to get hot water is pretty much just how long it takes for the water in the tank to reach the tap you are using.
Most modern builds, especially your basic <4 bed “mass produced” house will have a combi boiler and no tank. These literally start to heat water when they sense flow in the hot water pipe. With these it can take up to 30 seconds or so to get fairly hot water.
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