To just run the bloody tap?

[Sparrowlegs248]

Dinner at my parents house tonight. I started washing up afterwards. Got told off, again, for filling the tiny washing up bowl up from the hot tap. Apparently I should boil the kettle and pour it into the bowl. It's an ongoing dispute.

There were vast amounts of things to be washed, some quite greasy, and large. So I had run a sink full of hot water and started on the cleaner things

I think it really doesn't cost that much to run the tap. Their main argument against it is wasting the cold water that runs away before the warm cones through.

My arguementis do what you like but when I'm washing up dishes, pots etc for 6 people, 2 separate meals, then I'll need a decent sink of hot water.

[Sparrowlegs248]

To clarify, they have a combi boiler. No tank. I however have a tank but still run the tap, and manage with the tank being heated once a day for 1 hr.

[HarrysOwl]

My rule is that someone can let me do it my way or they can do it themselves

-claps-

This. For everything.

[AnnaComnena]

But you have to heat the whole tank in the first place, in order to fill the bowl!

[Nanny0gg]

But with a kettle you only heat the water you need. With a tank, you have to heat the whole tank even if you only want a bowlful.

No you don't! Filling a bowl doesn't empty the tank and the amount of cold that refills it won't chill the whole tank!

[Nanny0gg]

My kitchen has mixer taps. I still have a hot water tank.

I would never drink the cold from that!

[MoistMolly]

There is a very real risk of legionnaires disease from not running taps regularly .

[NannyRed]

Although I agree that boiling the kettle is expensive and probably no quicker, it’s your parents home, they do it their way. It’s not for you to change the running of their household.

[AnnaComnena]

Much more of a drain using a kettle then hot water from a tap.

But with a kettle you only heat the water you need. With a tank, you have to heat the whole tank even if you only want a bowlful.

[CuriousaboutSamphire]

water from the hot tap is still from the hot water tank and is not safe to drink even if you boil it. Hot tap is supplied from stored water Not in this house, or many I have lived in since the 80s. Combi boilers have been mass produced in the UK since the 60s!

[Daffodils07]

Much more of a drain using a kettle then hot water from a tap.
My smart meter went right up when boiling the kettle.

[StillCoughingandLaughing]

1, water from the hot tap is still from the hot water tank and is not safe to drink even if you boil it. Hot tap is supplied from stored water. Cold tap in the kitchen is drinking water, supplied from the mains supply. (In the UK as far as I can determine)

That’s a massive generalisation. Maybe it used to be true for the UK in general, but any new builds from the past 15 - 20 years will have a combi boiler. Most boilers replaced within a similar timescale will also have eliminated the hot water tank. Haven’t you noticed how many modern kitchens have mixer taps?

[mamansnet]

Urgh, I feel your pain OP. MIL regularly tells me to switch the tap on and off as I lather up and rinse individual pieces of crockery.

I just let her do it herself instead now.--
She doesn't switch the bloody thing on and off herself, so why should I?--

[ShaftOfWit]

I do this occasionally, but only because we have only solar panels and an immersion heater to heat water in the tank - in winter we don't always have hot water in the tank, but our dishwasher, washing machine and shower all make their own hot water. We can fill a basin of water in the bathroom from the shower head and it doesn't seem worth keeping the tank hot for the bits and pieces that can't go in the dishwasher, so the odd kettle full of got water seems a better bet for us. But in the situation you describe, it sounds crazy, and as others have said, cold water from the hot tank is not safe to drink anyway.

[Princessmushroom]

My dad keeps water bottles by the sink and fills them up whilst the tap runs cold. It makes him happy to have his 1p of water or whatever.

[Warpdrive]

They should have an empty lemonade bottle next to the sink and run the hot tap, saving the cold water which runs through as it warms in this bottle. They can then use that for watering plants, flushing toilets etc. I know someone else who does this.

Not me, I’m a water waster....I’d run it til it warms up.

[AnnaComnena]

it costs far more to boil a kettle (perhaps even repeatedly) than it does to heat water for a tap.

I am not going to heat a whole tank of hot water, and keep it hot, just to get the small amount needed to do some washing up in the evening. And since my hot water tank is upstairs, the water isn't that hot by the time it reaches my kitchen sink, anyway.

[MerryBerryCheesecake]

The most efficient thing to do would be to save the cold water that runs first for something else (making tea? Flushing the toilet?) The hot water you use for washing up will then only have been heated to the appropriate temperature.

1, water from the hot tap is still from the hot water tank and is not safe to drink even if you boil it. Hot tap is supplied from stored water. Cold tap in the kitchen is drinking water, supplied from the mains supply. (In the UK as far as I can determine)

2, who is going to mess with the toilet cistern every day to save a few pints of water. Some cisterns are not even accessible. Saving it in a bucket and throwing it down the crapper would lack the force required for a flush.

3, there is a reason why the hot water thermostat allows the temperature to get a lot hotter than you need. It is to prevent disease proliferating in a lukewarm oxygenless environment (the tank). Primarily Legionnaires Disease according to the engineers doing checks around my way every so often. It is not wise to always heat the hot water tank a little then turn it off, frequently needs to be allowed to get properly hot.

[MargotLovedTom1]

As in: just boiled from the kettle, as your parents do.

[MargotLovedTom1]

We have a dishwasher but I still wash wine some glasses and lunch boxes etc by hand; I just run the hot tap into the bowl with some washing up liquid and the initial cold water mixes with the subsequent hot water, giving the perfect temperature for my hands to tolerate. Who would plunge their hands into bowl full of just boiled water?!

[prh47bridge]

Boiling a kettle costs around 2.5p in electricity. That buys you around 25 litres (about 5.5 gallons) of water. So, unless it takes several minutes for the water from the hot tap to warm up, they are wasting money. If they are really concerned about the wasted water they could collect it and use it for something else but, by using a kettle, they are spending a lot more on electricity than they are saving on water.

[MotherForkinShirtBalls]

Ah, I was going to suggest a far away hot tank. Ours is at the other end of the house so I do get concerned about wasting water with running thr tap to get it hot, so I tend to fill the kettle with the tap run and then boil that the next time I need to wash up... A 50-50 split!

[MidniteScribbler]

Until we had some rain the other week, I did this for a few weeks. I could use a much smaller amount of the boiling water to get the right heat, rather than a full sink. But that was when we were absolutely desperate for water and every single drop was rationed.

[TheSmallAssassin]

The most efficient thing to do would be to save the cold water that runs first for something else (making tea? Flushing the toilet?) The hot water you use for washing up will then only have been heated to the appropriate temperature.

[TheSmallAssassin]

Surely, unless you stop the kettle before it boils, you are heating water up to 100° then need to cool it down to around 40° with cold water to be able to put your hands in it. If they really are boiling the kettle, then they are wasting energy by heating it to a much higher temperature than they need.

[goingtotown]

My neighbours carer brings her laundry with her to use in the washing machine with my neighbours laundry because the carer is on a water meter.