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Recirculating Hot Water

i think the general feeling in the uk was that the wasted water from having a normal system was less significant than the wasted heat from a secondry circulation system like this and it stopped being used in new installations (at least residential ones). I've seen lots of commercial setups that seem to use this method though.
Peter Green

On the Continent of Europe it's apparently quite common to have the hot water pipes in a circuit from the hot tank, around all the taps and back to the tank, with a pump to move the hot water around so that it comes out of the taps hot almost instantly. I don't know the details of how this works (I'm sure the pump doesn't run 24/7 but not sure how you control it sensibly) but it would solve the problem with long runs. As well as the saving of time waiting for the water to go hot, it also saves water, but at the expense of some energy. The return pipe from the furthest tap could – should! -be small-bore to reduce the capacity of the circuit and thus the heat wasted in the return leg.
Howard Winter

Here's a control gadget just for that: http://www.redytemp.com/
Gary C

Convenience Idea
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