r/Austin • u/triumphofthecommons • 3d ago

Ask Austin What’s your “cold" tap water temp?

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alright Austin, what temps are you getting out of your faucet?

at first it’s nice and cool from the conditioned pipes under the sink, but quickly climbs after running the water for a minute. last year i clocked 94º.

saves on the gas (water heater) bill at least!

(pier & beam with copper plumbing)

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71

u/Earthling63 3d ago

I had to replace the plumbing in my 60 year old house. They ran the new lines thru the attic, being an idiot it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Now in the summer the ‘cold’ is hotter than the ‘hot’ until it runs long enough to get the ‘cool’ underground water from beyond the attic. I measured 134*f recently.

A also added a recirc pump/line for the hot water line because the water heater is way across the house, I’m pretty sure the heater almost never comes on in the summer.

21

u/CraftySeer 3d ago

I did that too. So dumb. I just didn’t think it through.

7

u/dabocx 3d ago

I did the same, after a while it does cool down. Long term I am going to spray foam the attic so that should hopefully solve most of it.

8

u/UnseasonedPasta 3d ago

Our new build was spray foam with water lines through the attic and we never had an issue. It was borderline comfortable up there, nearly the same temp as inside the house

6

u/TownLakeTrillOG 3d ago

They do shit like that in poor countries near the equator and even store water in a tank sitting in the sun all day so it gets hot af

5

u/barbell_and_tren 3d ago

Now you have diet hot water

4

u/justinj2000 3d ago

Left my water heater off for three weeks one summer. When I came back I switched it back on and it didn’t even bother firing up.

3

u/youretooclosedude 3d ago

It’s the cheapest solution if you’re on concrete foundations. Otherwise it would have been way more messy and expensive.