Attic Hot Water Loop

A hot water loop uses a small pump to circulate hot water between a water heater and a distant bathroom or kitchen.

Attic hot water loop. The attic offers customizable and easily accessible space for improvements and modifications. Install electric ventilators and attic fans which remove hot air from an attic. The natural air flow created by a properly vented attic will move hot air out of the home. A soft water loop is a copper piping system that reconnects your home s internal water distribution pipes to the water softener.

While soft water will make the water heater happy along with all the fixtures on the hot side hard water is still in the system every inch of the cold side and where hot and cold meet at faucets. Attic ventilation is vital to the upkeep of your home so make sure it is installed and functioning correctly. I am planning to install a hot water recirculation loop on my existing system to facilitate a frequent high demand for hot water in our kitchen. The run in the attic will be about 30 feet and i plan to insulate.

They have thermostats that turn the fan on at a recommended preset temperature of 100 110 degrees. There is a few ways an expansion pipe can have water running through the expansion pipe as list below. It works together with the attic insulation which will ensure hot air does not enter the attic from outside. Primary loop piping is commonly used in boiler heating systems that run needing multiple temperatures or contstant temperature at the hydronic boiler is required.

However doing so in a way that doesn t waste a lot of energy is a little trickier. Creating the loop is fairly easy. In my case i decided to run both the supply and return loops close together with each line conventionally wrapped with foam pipe insulation about r 4. A continuously operating pump is clearly wasteful.

Even though the attic is well ventilated 2 fans lots of vents it can get very very hot well over 100 degrees on warm days. We have a recirculating hot water system with a foam wrapped copper loop so it doesn t take forever to get hot water to the kitchen baths. The only way water steam can get into the attic is through the central heating tank or the hot water storage tank either through the expansion pipe or the outlets of the storage tanks. Alternatively install passive vents such as gable soffit and ridge vents which are openings in the roof that allow hot air to escape.

The main use of a water loop is to keep the inside and outside of home s water systems separated. The pump uses a lot of electricity and the heat losses. I am planning to run a 1 2 pex line into the attic and then back down into the closet where the hw tank resides. The problem is the cold water.

Expecting to save a lot of energy and having safe hot water in our homes may at best be a compromise. A note on super insulating the hot water pipes of the recirculation loop.