Prior to moving to Myrtle Beach, SC, I never had to wait too long for hot water.  When I turned a faucet on hot, hot water quickly followed.  When I turned a faucet on cold, the water was cold.  Life was nice and everything worked just as expected.

When it came time to buy a home, we learned that plumbing is done differently in the south, especially in coastal areas.  Giving up a basement wasn’t a big deal for me, I never liked the cold dark places anyway.  However, I wondered where they put the pipes, the main shut-off valves, and water heaters.  Upon closer inspection, I discovered a lot of slab houses (built directly on a concrete slab) where the piping was run underneath the slab, main shut-off valves were non-existent, and water heaters were located in garages (some were even located in attics).

Hmmm . . . that’s not how I would have done it.

After several months of searching, we became proud owners of a house built on a slab.  It didn’t take long to realize that the H & C on the faucets had little meaning.   On one side of the house the wait for hot water was a little longer than we were accustomed and the other side was a much longer wait.  Luckily, our bathroom was located on the side where the wait wasn’t that long.  Unfortunately, getting hot water in the kitchen took patience.  Running the water for what seemed like forever to get hot water to run the dishwasher started to wear on my nerves.  I would complain, but it would be quickly forgotten about until the next evening.

I knew the solution to our problem and like most Americans, I procrastinated as something else always seemed more important.   Then one day something happened that was the last straw and it wasn’t waiting for hot water to get to the kitchen sink.  It was one of our children complaining of not having any hot water for a shower.

How could this be?  We had an 80 gallon water heater.  Well after questioning our children, we found out that they would all do the same thing.  Turn on the shower, set it all the way to hot, and walk away.  At some point, they would make it back to the bathroom where the water was hot.  Multiply that by three children and it’s easy to see what had happened.

The solution has saved us time and money!  Our water usage went down significantly, so we not only saved money, we were also not wasting a precious resource.   Best of all, no more waiting for hot water!

In Part II, I will let you know how we solved our problem and exactly how much we were able to reduce our water usage.

http://www.theplumberwhocares.com/