Controlling Hot Water Recirculation Pumps
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Posted by David White on June 14, 2007, 10:30 am
Please log in for more thread options Hello. I just bought a new home that has a recirculation pump located near the hot water heater. I am new to all this so I have some questions: (a) I have looked online and see some of these pumps have timers attached so they operate only during expected usage times (not between midnight and 5am). Mine does not have one that I can see. Are these always attached directly to the pump body or can the timer be located elsewhere? If elsewhere, where might this be? (b) I have read that some of these systems incorporate a temperature switch somewhere that shuts off the pump when a pre-set temp is reached at some point in the line. What are the signs that mine has such a switch? (c) Even with a timer as in (a) above it seems potentially very wasteful and hard on the pump for it to run continuously as we are not big hot water users generally. So is there some simple way - ideally using X-10, Active Home, CMA-11 (I think that's it), and simple macros (no running computer needed) which I already use - to control this pump mechanism at a more granular level? Thanks, David | |||||||||||||
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Posted by BruceR on June 14, 2007, 3:00 pm
Please log in for more thread options I used to have one of those and it was made by Grudfos - a top brand. It is designed for continuous operation so that's not a problem. A timer would be located either on the pump or where it's plugged in or some point on the circuit feeding it. What I did was to simply plug it into an appliance module. Doing that it could be controlled as any other X10 device. When we set the alarm to go out or go to sleep the pump would turn off. It would turn on again at our normal wake up time and then stay off most of the day till dinnertime. David White wrote: | |||||||||||||
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Posted by Larry on June 15, 2007, 11:01 am
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David White wrote: > Hello. I just bought a new home that has a recirculation pump located
> near the hot water heater. I am new to all this so I have some questions: > > (a) I have looked online and see some of these pumps have timers > attached so they operate only during expected usage times (not between > midnight and 5am). Mine does not have one that I can see. Are these > always attached directly to the pump body or can the timer be located > elsewhere? If elsewhere, where might this be? > > (b) I have read that some of these systems incorporate a temperature > switch somewhere that shuts off the pump when a pre-set temp is reached > at some point in the line. What are the signs that mine has such a switch? > > (c) Even with a timer as in (a) above it seems potentially very wasteful > and hard on the pump for it to run continuously as we are not big hot > water users generally. So is there some simple way - ideally using X-10, > Active Home, CMA-11 (I think that's it), and simple macros (no running > computer needed) which I already use - to control this pump mechanism at > a more granular level? > > Thanks, > > David Our Buderus boiler (which also makes hot water) does this automatically. The computer runs the pump for user controlled intervals at user defined intervals of our choosing. I believe it is set to run for 3 minutes every half hour from 6:30 am until 11 pm. The pump is located behind the furnace on the wall with an auxilliary switch which allows the pump to be shut off permanently. I would expect the pump to be located somewhere near the water heater with the timer close by. -- Larry rapp at lmr dot com | |||||||||||||
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Posted by Bob F on June 15, 2007, 11:15 am
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> Hello. I just bought a new home that has a recirculation pump
> located near the hot water heater. I am new to all this so I have > some questions: > > (a) I have looked online and see some of these pumps have timers > attached so they operate only during expected usage times (not > between midnight and 5am). Mine does not have one that I can see. > Are these always attached directly to the pump body or can the timer > be located elsewhere? If elsewhere, where might this be? > > (b) I have read that some of these systems incorporate a temperature > switch somewhere that shuts off the pump when a pre-set temp is > reached at some point in the line. What are the signs that mine has > such a switch? Type the model # on your pump into google or go to the manufacturers web site and find the manual. Bob | |||||||||||||
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Posted by CWatters on July 24, 2007, 3:49 pm
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> Hello. I just bought a new home that has a recirculation pump located
> near the hot water heater. I am new to all this so I have some questions: > > (a) I have looked online and see some of these pumps have timers > attached so they operate only during expected usage times (not between > midnight and 5am). Mine does not have one that I can see. Are these > always attached directly to the pump body or can the timer be located > elsewhere? If elsewhere, where might this be? On many systems there is no timer. The loop runs continuously. You can get a timer added easily. > (b) I have read that some of these systems incorporate a temperature
> switch somewhere that shuts off the pump when a pre-set temp is reached > at some point in the line. What are the signs that mine has such a switch? On my system I've added a timer and a pipe mounted thermostat. The timer turns the loop off at night. The pipe stat is clamped to the pipe where the hot loop returns to the hot water tank. It turns off the pump during the day once the hot water has gone around the loop an heated the return. Eventually the loop cools again and the pump restarts. The pipe stat is overkill really. A system is perfectly ok without. > (c) Even with a timer as in (a) above it seems potentially very wasteful
> and hard on the pump for it to run continuously as we are not big hot > water users generally. So is there some simple way - ideally using X-10, > Active Home, CMA-11 (I think that's it), and simple macros (no running > computer needed) which I already use - to control this pump mechanism > at a more granular level? These recirculating pumps are quite low power and are designed to run continuously. The power should be written on it somewhere. I guess you could use an appliance module to control it and switch it off at night. Definitly overkill though! | |||||||||||||
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> near the hot water heater. I am new to all this so I have some
> questions:
> (a) I have looked online and see some of these pumps have timers
> attached so they operate only during expected usage times (not between
> midnight and 5am). Mine does not have one that I can see. Are these
> always attached directly to the pump body or can the timer be located
> elsewhere? If elsewhere, where might this be?
>
> (b) I have read that some of these systems incorporate a temperature
> switch somewhere that shuts off the pump when a pre-set temp is
> reached at some point in the line. What are the signs that mine has
> such a switch?
> (c) Even with a timer as in (a) above it seems potentially very
> wasteful and hard on the pump for it to run continuously as we are
> not big hot water users generally. So is there some simple way -
> ideally using X-10, Active Home, CMA-11 (I think that's it), and
> simple macros (no running computer needed) which I already use - to
> control this pump mechanism at a more granular level?
>
> Thanks,
>
> David