How do I increase my hot water capacity?
I am buying a new house which has a tankless water heater where the boiler heats both the water for the heating distribution to baseboards and the hot watger for showers, faucets, etc. The issue is that the system has a small capacity and you can only run one hot water device at a time (can’t take two showers at the same time for example). System is oil fired. Whjat is the best way to expand the capacity? Can I get some sort of insulated or secondary heated expansion tank off the boiler?
What NOSDDA is suggesting, by way of increasing the size of your pipes on the hot side won’t actually increase your heated water capacity, it will only increase the flow of hot water when you open a fixture. I’ve heard lots of opinions on the on-demand hot water systems in use lately and some of it’s good and some not so much. This leads me to think that maybe a combination of the two, especially for someone like yourself, who wants a lot of hot water and right now, would work out well. The idea of on-demand systems is that you have hot water when you want it without having to heat it beforehand and then store it, (getting cooler all the while), till you want it. So, I’m wondering how an on-demand system, in front of a 50 gal. gas or electric, whichever would be congenial with your present setup, would work out. The on-demand system would of course, heat any water that runs through it, which then, in turn, would wind up in the large 50 gal. tank for storage. And every time you turn on a fixture to use hot water, there would be at least 50 gals. of piping hot water ready and waiting, and would be replaced by, more piping hot water, so that the hot water wouldn’t run out in the middle of your shower or anyone else’s who might also want to take one at the same time. It might be wise to put some extra insulation around the larger tank, just to keep the incidents of it kicking on to heat the water inside, to a minimum. Seems like that might take care of your problem.
you can install on demand electric water heaters under every sink you own if you have the money.
You can only increase the capacity of your hot water by increasing the size of the hot water pipe to your taps and shower etc, to a 3/4 size pipe. That means a 3/4 main hot feed, with 1/2 pipes taken off to your hot faucets and showers etc.
Try this site, it is very helpful.
thisoldhouse.com
or askthisoldhouse.com
look into the possibility of installing on demand water heaters
where ever you want extra hot water,talk to your local plumber about it.