Heating water is typically the second largest use of energy in a home (after space heating and cooling). Despite its resource intensity, the hot water delivery system is seldom an area of significant focus when constructing a home. As a result, many homes today are built with poor performing, inefficient hot water delivery systems that take minutes to deliver hot water to the point of use and waste large amounts of energy and water in the process.
You may need a PDF reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA’s About PDF page to learn more.- WS-homes-hot-water-distribution-guide.pdf (PDF)(28 pp, 874 K)