As I was cleaning up the last few dishes from tonight’s dinner, I turned on the water at the kitchen sink. The water splashing out was refreshingly cool, a pleasant little oasis for these warm, dry days. My mind drifted from arctic scenes, snowfalls, and cool mountain waterfalls. After savoring those thoughts for a moment, it was time for warmer water. That’s when I turned on the cold water.
Yep. Our sink’s hot water is colder than our cold water. Sometimes way colder!
I first noticed this curious anomaly this week. It didn’t take me long to figure out what is happening. The pipes for the kitchen sink sit directly above the main air conditioner vent for the house. Somehow, the cold vent is cooling the hot 125 degree pipe above it well into the 40 degree range, though I’m not sure exactly how contact is made. Only when the hot water hasn’t run in a while does the effect occur.
Its troubling to think that the whole summer our air conditioner was pumping out cold air, part of it was being heated by our hot water heater. Ditto for our hot water getting the cold shoulder from the AC. What a stupid design!
My curiosity in how things are configured almost drove me under the house this weekend, however the venty-pipey confluence lives in the far corner of the crawlspace. The “two feet of clearance, tops” corner. That was enough to make cutting the grass in the blazing sun more attractive, if you can believe it.
One day I’ll go under there armed with heavy-duty insulation and straighten things out. If I need to sink too much work into it, at least I can vent on my blog.
Cool story!