Traditional hot water circulating systems use a hot water circulating pump to pump hot water from the water heater, through the hot water piping, and on back to the water heater through an additional length of pipe that runs from the furthest fixture back to the water heater.  

This type of hot water circulating system provides nearly instant hot water at the fixtures, but wastes a tremendous amount of energy through both the energy required to operate the hot water pump and the heat energy lost from the piping.

Several methods have been employed to reduce the energy waste associated with hot water pump circulating systems.  

Timers are sometimes placed on the circulating pump so the system shuts the hot water pump off during hours that one one normally uses hot water such as from midnight to 6:00 a. m.

Sometimes the circulating pump is controlled by a temperature sensing control circuit that turns the pump off once the water temperature reaches a pre-determined  temperature like 140 degrees and then turns the pump back on when the water temperature in the pipe lowers below a second set point such as 110 degrees.  This type of system does little to reduce the energy losses because the lower set point is still  so high that it causes a continuous heat loss from the plumbing system.

Any way you look at it, traditional hot water circulating systems consume large amounts of energy.  There are alternatives to traditional hot water circulating systems that do not require a return line and do not use more energy than a house with no circulating system at all.

Hot water demand systems can provide quicker hot water than a standard plumbing system and eliminate the wastage of water also associated with standard plumbing systems.  These pumps only operate when you want hot water and they consume virtually no extra energy.

One such pumping system is the Chilipepper hot water demand system pump.  Chilipepper Sales