Tap Water Temperature

[wuapinmon]

I used our digital candy thermometer to see how cold our "cold" water out of the tap was. It held a steady 89F.

I'm going to check on Feb. 11, 2011 and see what it is.

Anyone else who wants to experiment should join and post their readings. I'll probably check mine again around Labor Day to see if it increases.

[CJF]

I used our digital candy thermometer to see how cold our "cold" water out of the tap was. It held a steady 89F.

I'm going to check on Feb. 11, 2011 and see what it is.

Anyone else who wants to experiment should join and post their readings. I'll probably check mine again around Labor Day to see if it increases.

Phoenix tap water from about June though September is probably 95 degrees or warmer. I don't know why, but I hated brushing my teeth with tap water during the summers when I lived there. It's not much cooler here in Manila.

[landpoke]

I'll check when I get home and report back!

[wally]

Water systems consist of the following rough steps:

1. Raw water source
2. Raw water storage & intake
3. Water treatment
4. Finished water storage
5. Distribution piping to your house

In the arid west, raw water source and storage is sometimes a large shallow reservoir that heats up in the sun (or a warm, shallow aquifer). Finished water storage facilities are very large steel tanks that also heat up in the sun.

Finished water is stored at a quantity adequate to account for peak water demand. Peak water demands are conservative numbers that usually derive from the 3 S’s (shit, shower and shave) that usually occur in morning hours in all homes, also industry begins usage in the morning in roughly the same timeframe. After peak usage is determined, a safety factor is added assuming that there is a 5-alarm fire somewhere at peak demand. This makes for a lot of water baking in a large tank.

If you live in certain parts of SLC however, your water comes directly from City Creek, Emigration, Big Cottonwood or Little Cottonwood Canyons and is comprised mostly of snowmelt, and in the summertime it is cool and delicious.

[The_Tick]

Wuap,

How long do we let it run before we take temp?

[Jeff Lebowski]

This is so exciting. I can't wait to see the numbers!

[wuapinmon]

Wuap,

How long do we let it run before we take temp?

I had to let mine go a minute or two before the temp stabilized. I also flushed out the hotline because the water in the pipes was airconditioned.

Once it stabilized, it was a constant 89F, all the way cold.

[Babs]

shouldn't we all use the same thermometer? Maybe we can ship it across the country from east to west. Or wuapinmon can start a cross-country tour and make the official readings.

[landpoke]

Bad news, the candy thermometer is MIA so I had to improvised with a meat thermometer. I'm sure it goes without saying, but you're going to normalize the data, correct? I'd hate for for my measurement to queer the set because I used a different technique to obtain the temperature.

Anyways: 60 degrees.

[wuapinmon]

Bad news, the candy thermometer is MIA so I had to improvised with a meat thermometer. I'm sure it goes without saying, but you're going to normalize the data, correct? I'd hate for for my measurement to queer the set because I used a different technique to obtain the temperature.

Anyways: 60 degrees.

I'm not a math guy, so I don't know that I can ever normalize your queer data. However, I think a meat thermometer works really well under a constant stream. Just make sure that the tip of the probe is held in the middle of the water.

[Katy Lied]

I also flushed out the hotline because the water in the pipes was airconditioned.

Last month at work I was discussing a chiller in the men's prison in Walla Walla, and I wondered why they couldn't use the potable water lines as backup to their chiller system.

Every engineer there concluded it was a really dumb question, but no one could tell me why it was a dumb question.

Makes me wonder if Mechanical Engineers ever think outside the box.

[landpoke]

Every engineer there concluded it was a really dumb question, but no one could tell me why it was a dumb question.

It's because you're a woman, now don't you have a pie to bake or something?

I'm pretty sure I've used that one before, but it never gets old.

[Katy Lied]

It's because you're a woman, now don't you have a pie to bake or something?

I'm pretty sure I've used that one before, but it never gets old.

I would, but they don't let you bring pies into the mens prison at Walla Walla.

[landpoke]

I would, but they don't let you bring pies into the mens prison at Walla Walla.

No, see, that's not what I was trying to do dammit.

[Uncle Ted]

Last month at work I was discussing a chiller in the men's prison in Walla Walla, and I wondered why they couldn't use the potable water lines as backup to their chiller system.

Every engineer there concluded it was a really dumb question, but no one could tell me why it was a dumb question.

Makes me wonder if Mechanical Engineers ever think outside the box.

I am not a mechanical engineer but isn't the water in a chiller system pure water with antifreeze and anticorrosion chemicals? I am guessing running potable water long term in the chiller's heat exchanger may reduce its efficiency because the hard water deposits and may even be damaging due to corrosion. It may be really a question for a chemical engineer.

Recently my water heater started leaking so I replaced it with a high efficient, tankless (and got a nice tax credit thanks to Obama). One of the things I have to do is periodically reverse flush the stainless steel heat exchanger with some chemicals to remove the hard water deposits. This seems like a pain but it is nice having an "endless" supply of hot water.