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Ya...I've always had my doubts about the recirculating thing. I guess it maybe saves some fuel costs but the water gets grotty fast. I've gotten too old for nickel and dimeing everything.

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Be careful of all that pounding in the shower.....you could slip...

Slightly off subject, but we just got our first electric bill and even though we have a 100Amp ring main have our electric storage heaters running 24/7 and the ventilation system running 24/7 too plus

Yeah regular Japanese size baths don't really do themselves any favours on the inviting front. But even back home I rarely took a bath.....I much prefer a really powerful shower pounding away at you. I love rotenburo....but I'm not sure whether it's because of the bath or just lounging around outside in the scuddy!! :lol:

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Ya...I've always had my doubts about the recirculating thing. I guess it maybe saves some fuel costs but the water gets grotty fast. I've gotten too old for nickel and dimeing everything.

 

Do you run your onsen water around your house as a heat source? That would be great for the heating bills.

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Indeed. There should be more geothermal heating in Japan.

 

The other one is something I saw in a permaculture book, but you can attach a heat exchanger around the pipe carrying drain water from your shower to partially heat the next lot of hot water. That way you'd get fresh hot water every time but still recover the heat from water that's been used.

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Ya...I've always had my doubts about the recirculating thing. I guess it maybe saves some fuel costs but the water gets grotty fast. I've gotten too old for nickel and dimeing everything.

 

Do you run your onsen water around your house as a heat source? That would be great for the heating bills.

 

Yes....I've thought about doing that somehow but I think the construction costs would far exceed the savings in heating.. ...AND...I think by the time we get the water it's cooled quite a bit especially in the winter months. It's still hot but not boiling. I should take a temperature reading out of the faucet. At one point a few years ago I had dreamy thoughts of building a hinoki rotenburo out by the side of the house. It would be easy enough to put a tee at the pipe coming into the house and do a run of pvc around to the other side to the outside bath.... BUT...the problem was...how and where to drain the water. That part requires further detailed thought.

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Ya...I've always had my doubts about the recirculating thing. I guess it maybe saves some fuel costs but the water gets grotty fast. I've gotten too old for nickel and dimeing everything.

 

Do you run your onsen water around your house as a heat source? That would be great for the heating bills.

 

It's still hot but not boiling.

 

Good job really!

;)

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Critics.......

 

Well, the pipes are pretty shallow underground so in the summer it gets hot enough to scald or close to it. In the winter....less but still far too hot to run a bath without tempering it with at least an equal volume of cold water. If you turn the flow way down to a trickle you can get the sweet spot and leave it running 24/7. But then we have to run the extraction fan all the time as well.

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We use our bath water twice or maybe three times, but I don't like it around that point because it feels gross after that long. So, we typically use it twice then use it to do our laundry with. We got an automatic pump that cost like 1500 yen I believe at a home center near us.

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Ya...I've always had my doubts about the recirculating thing. I guess it maybe saves some fuel costs but the water gets grotty fast. I've gotten too old for nickel and dimeing everything.

 

Do you run your onsen water around your house as a heat source? That would be great for the heating bills.

 

Yes....I've thought about doing that somehow but I think the construction costs would far exceed the savings in heating.. ...AND...I think by the time we get the water it's cooled quite a bit especially in the winter months. It's still hot but not boiling. I should take a temperature reading out of the faucet. At one point a few years ago I had dreamy thoughts of building a hinoki rotenburo out by the side of the house. It would be easy enough to put a tee at the pipe coming into the house and do a run of pvc around to the other side to the outside bath.... BUT...the problem was...how and where to drain the water. That part requires further detailed thought.

Running natural "free" heat to warm your house would be a great way to spend your onsen tax. Oh well.

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Slightly off subject, but we just got our first electric bill and even though we have a 100Amp ring main have our electric storage heaters running 24/7 and the ventilation system running 24/7 too plus the cooker, dishwasher and everything else our bill only came to 19,000 yen and our Solar panels produced 15,000 yen worth of electric, so only 4000yen to pay so we are well happy.

 

Summer time we shouldn't have anything to pay.

 

And as we didn't pay anything for the solar panels it's looking like a good deal so far.

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That sounds good!

 

Still find it mad you got that for free. No-one in these parts offers that, they offer if for hundreds of man! :doh:

 

Perhaps the house prices reflect that, I suppose. After all, nothing's actually "free" is it. Certainly not something of that value.

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Yes...I'm sure those costs are hidden somewhere else...but nonetheless, the perception that you are only paying 4000 yen still feels pretty damned good. Nice Snowdude!

 

 

Back to the bath for a second.... I took a temp of the onsen water at the tap. It came out to around 61 C.... so quite hot.

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Yes...I'm sure those costs are hidden somewhere else...but nonetheless, the perception that you are only paying 4000 yen still feels pretty damned good. Nice Snowdude!

 

Of course. :friend:

 

61C...wow, you will need some cold in that!

 

We seem to like it at 43C or 44C.

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No the solar really is free because if we had of said we dont want it the price would have been the same.

The reason Yamanashi are really trying to promote and expand solar power so thevsolar companies give the house builders a nice commission for getting their solar set up on one of their houses.

I know it seems that it is not the case but it really is free for the customer of a new house max 4kw

 

But these offers run for short periods at a time.

The solar companies receive funding from the local county offices to help with the promotion.

 

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What we like to do is just leave it trickling and when you are ready to take your bath put a wash basin in it and mix the hot top water with the cooled off water down below...voila...43 degrees.. :thumbsup: That way it doesn't hit your water usage bill.

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No the solar really is free because if we had of said we dont want it the price would have been the same.

 

There are times when some things are the same price if you don't do it.

Infuriating if you don't want it.

 

It's just the way these things sometimes work.

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No the solar really is free because if we had of said we dont want it the price would have been the same.

The reason Yamanashi are really trying to promote and expand solar power so thevsolar companies give the house builders a nice commission for getting their solar set up on one of their houses.

I know it seems that it is not the case but it really is free for the customer of a new house max 4kw

 

But these offers run for short periods at a time.

The solar companies receive funding from the local county offices to help with the promotion.

 

Ya, I can see that. I think I mentioned it before but driving through Fujiyoshida I would swear damned near every house has a solar array.

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Thats very cool snowdude. If it's only limited offer etc, I can imagine people being pissed off if they missed out on it.

 

Different in our area where that sort of thing just doesn't seem to be available. Someone in our neighbourhood just had solar installed, and from what I gather it cost them over 3,000,000 yen outlay.

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