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.

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.

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.

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?--

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?

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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

I would never drink the cold from that!

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!

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

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

-claps-

This. For everything.

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.