After reading various peoples frustrations with lighting the water heater...i have to ask...are we the only folks here who just leave the dang pilot light lit 24/7? We don't go thru huge amounts of gas, and have never really considered turning the thing off in between....as the the cost is really negligable as is....and we're generally pretty conservative on fuel stuff (as in no air conditioning, etc.) Anyway, just curious, and now I guess I will keep track just how fast we use up a tank of LP...for curiosities sake, but?

Sooz, there are a lot of variables in the answer to that question.

Do you take a shower the same time every day?

Do you take several showers a day?

Is the water heater easily accessible?

Do you keep it set at the highest setting?

If it's not in an easy place to get to, set it at the lowest setting

that gives you the temperature you like and leave it alone then.

Turn it off if you're gone for an extended period of time.

We leave our water heater pilot light on 24/7. We have a 70 litre tank for 3 living units, usually about 6 people. Our gas costs about $300 pesos per month for the water, 3 cooking stoves, and a few loads a month in the gas laundry dryer.



Chuck

Guess I am somewhat suprised that individuals would consider lighting and relighting the pilot light. Means each time you want to wash some dishes, take a shower or use any hot water you would have to light the pilot and then wait for 30 minutes to use hot water. What a pain. Gas is extremely inexpensive. We probably use a tank once every 2 months. Cheap convience.

We are now considering the installation of a constant hot water unit to reduce our cost further and insur the hot water is always available.

On-demand gas-fired water heaters seem to offer the best energy efficiency and performance, after solar. The only drawback to a good on-demand heater is that they build-up Ca salt encrustation, and slowly lose flow and capacity. They can be cleaned, and restored to good working order though.



Hot water for dishes: why?



Comfy for the hands, but really doesn't increase cleaning power or disinfection power at temps that hands can tolerate (105º - 110º F). It takes at least 140º F water and extended exposure times to even begin killing microbes. Public health authorities agree that even 170º F water requires at least 30 sec. of exposure time at full heat. Studies have shown it takes roughly 15 min of contact time for 140º water to disinfect objects completely. How many of us are willing to heat a sink to 140º (scalding) water, and maintain it at that temp (using torches/burners) for at least 10 minutes?



Using hot water for hand washing dishes sure seems like another old-wives tale, not supported by microbiology or virology or public health studies. If you're actually concerned about killing microbes: it takes a strong oxidizer (like bleach or iodine), or a strong base (like ammonia), or a strong acid (though acids only tend to inhibit microbial growth - e.g. see info on the wide-world of thermophiles), or a strong reducing agent (zinc), or organic solvents, or some organic toxins/disinfectants like crown ethers, clove oil, lavender oil, pinenes & terpenes.



Study after study have shown that soap and hot water (at temps tolerated by human hands) basically is no more effective at removing or reducing microbes than scrubbing with a brush in flowing water. Hand washing is an interesting anomoly, where we all have at least 200 or so different species of microbial flora on our hands, and effective hand washing involves at least 20 seconds of effort, and still it only temporarily reduces the numbers of microbes on our hands.



This all leads to some peoples preferences for automatic dishwashers. Good dishwashers have heating elements in the tub that heat the water to high (140º +) disinfecting temps and utilize nasty oxidizing detergents that would chew up even a dock-worker's hands.



Or use a final dilute hydrogen peroxide or dilute bleach solution dip of dishes if you are paranoid about microbes. Me? I keep a clean kitchen, spray counters and prep surfaces with dilute bleach solns., handle raw meats with appropriate care, and micro-dyne fruits and veg. We wash our dishes in ambient temp dish water, using soap to dissolve oil/grease residues, and let them air dry. We shower with water heated by a little 5 gal water heater - electricity turned on 5 minutes before showering, which would use less energy and cost less than gas (unless you have pilot-less ignition and on-demand operation).



What's best? Lo no se... up to individual choice. I simply offer proven facts.



Enjoy, steve

Suz, ours is outside (not in a bodega or sheletered) and it just seems to get blown out a lot. That and we shut the gas off when we are gone for extended periods.



However now I feel like to water tank lighting MASTER. It took thousands of woman hours holding down the one button and then the other, and then the long lighter. Gas on, gas off. Wait. Gas on...



But now I just do: gas on, 60 seconds, hold button, turn knob, hold lighter and keep turning knob 'til the whole thing erupts in glorious flames!



I know, it sounds simple, but turns out there are 47235.3 variables.

Hot water removes the grease from dishes and pans faster.

Everyone knows it doesn't kill the germs.

But it also doesn't chap your hands like cold water does.

coool....



Pele:

Why hold the button for 60 sec before lighting the pilot? This just allows gas to build up, to create mini-fireballs... (Cheap thrills?) The recommended procedure is to use a long-nosed lighter, strike the flame at the pilot jet, push in the button, and when it lights, turn off the lighter and THEN continue to hold the button for 60 seconds, to heat the gas in the thermocouple. Whistling "Yankee Doodle" briskly two times gives a nice estimate of 60 sec.

coool....

I tend to wipe any excess grease from our pans with the meals napkins (w/organic trash disposal) - which keeps the grease out of our drains and septic system, so, I hadn't thought about the need for hot water with greasy stuff. Good tip!



Pele:

Maybe I misunderstood: Why hold the button for 60 sec before lighting the pilot? This would allow gas to build up, to create mini-fireballs... (Cheap thrills?) The recommended procedure is to use a long-nosed lighter, strike the flame at the pilot jet, then push in the button, and when it lights, turn off the lighter and continue to hold the button for 60 seconds, to heat the gas in the thermocouple. Whistling "Yankee Doodle" briskly two times gives a nice estimate of 60 sec.

Wow, thanks everyone, interesting. I think I was misunderstanding about lighting the thing up. Sounds more like what Pelorojo said.....they were talking about the thing getting blown out by the wind and then having to keep relighting it. They were not turning it off and on every time they wanted hot water, my confusion!