View source for Archive:000/Water heating

This page is about hot water systems in homes & buildings.

==Types==
* [[solar thermal panels]]
* electric water heating
* natural gas water heating

==Energy use==
49'C is considered the ideal hot water temperature. Anything hotter is a safety hazard (scalding).
{{minor|If water is coming in to the building at a typical 9'C, then that's a 40 degree (kelvin) difference.}}

Physics shows how much [[energy]] it takes to heat the water:
{{minor|Same calculation shown in multiple different units:}}


{{calc
|water_specificheat * waterdensity * 40 kelvin
|kilowatt hours / liter
|
|Electricity
}}


{{calc
|water_specificheat * waterdensity * 40 kelvin
|btu / liter
|
|British Thermal Units
}}


{{calc
|water_specificheat * waterdensity * 40 kelvin
|teaspoons gasoline / gallon
|
|Fuel burned to heat each gallon of water (American units)
}}

<!-- TALK: Maybe the calculator should be able to show the same equation once, and show the result in multiple different units. Some other pages could benefit from this too. -->

<!-- TODO: maybe add calculations to estimate the cost of hot water -->