I have lived in this house for over a year (built in mid 70's), and one of the most frustrating aspects is the way they ran the water lines to the two bathrooms. Attached is a sketch of the existing plumbing.
As one can guess from the picture, the main problem is if you are taking a shower in bathroom 2, and someone flushes a toilet in bathroom 1, the water temperature can get downright scary in the shower. Aside from that, none of the pipes are insulated, so getting hot water to either bathroom takes quite a long time. Finally, the installers put the copper pipe against the floor joists with copper bands. When using the hot water, the pipes expanding make it sound like someone is hammering on the floor until they heat up.
My first solution was to buy some insulated 3/4" PEX-a, and do a run from the water heater to the split to each bathroom. Then I would turn both the copper lines into cold water lines. Figured the extra flow on both hot and cold would help the pressure variations, and the PEX would solve the pipe noise problem. I do realize this now makes my time to get hot water even worse.
But then I got to thinking: One thing I do have here is pretty high water pressure (80PSI). What if instead I turned one 1/2" copper run into Bath1, the other 1/2" run to bath 2 (alleviating the pressure drop when one bathroom is being used instead of the other). Then run a 1/2" INsulated PEX line for hot water, but put a pressure regulator at the point noted on the sketch.
I know this is a lot of information, but the main questions are this:
1. Is there a better way of solving this problem without putting in a second water heater?
2. Is a water pressure regulator a more effective way of fixing the temperature fluctuation issue than simply bigger plumbing?
I am interested to know how the pros would alleviate these plumbing issues. I have never lived in a home with the bathrooms so far away from the water heater/water supply.
Thanks
As one can guess from the picture, the main problem is if you are taking a shower in bathroom 2, and someone flushes a toilet in bathroom 1, the water temperature can get downright scary in the shower. Aside from that, none of the pipes are insulated, so getting hot water to either bathroom takes quite a long time. Finally, the installers put the copper pipe against the floor joists with copper bands. When using the hot water, the pipes expanding make it sound like someone is hammering on the floor until they heat up.
My first solution was to buy some insulated 3/4" PEX-a, and do a run from the water heater to the split to each bathroom. Then I would turn both the copper lines into cold water lines. Figured the extra flow on both hot and cold would help the pressure variations, and the PEX would solve the pipe noise problem. I do realize this now makes my time to get hot water even worse.
But then I got to thinking: One thing I do have here is pretty high water pressure (80PSI). What if instead I turned one 1/2" copper run into Bath1, the other 1/2" run to bath 2 (alleviating the pressure drop when one bathroom is being used instead of the other). Then run a 1/2" INsulated PEX line for hot water, but put a pressure regulator at the point noted on the sketch.
I know this is a lot of information, but the main questions are this:
1. Is there a better way of solving this problem without putting in a second water heater?
2. Is a water pressure regulator a more effective way of fixing the temperature fluctuation issue than simply bigger plumbing?
I am interested to know how the pros would alleviate these plumbing issues. I have never lived in a home with the bathrooms so far away from the water heater/water supply.
Thanks