Regulations around water temperature in the home?

Thoie

I'm in a new build, and the plumber told me that the hot water (coming from the taps) has to be set at 48 degrees, as it's "illegal" to go any higher. This sounds like rubbish, but thought I'd check. I'd expect hot water from the taps to be around 60C, which can then be tempered with cold water as required.

Doing some quick googling, it seems there was a suggestion in Canada to keep water around 49C to prevent scalds to children, but they highlight that 60C is better to control Legionella. (Irrelevant to regulations discussion, but for various reasons, I'm at far greater risk from legionella contamination than of scalding).

The other problem is that the actual temperature coming from the taps seems to be around 38C (+/- 1 degree over the space of a few days). I'm guessing this should be a simple adjustment somewhere?

sydthebeat

sounds like a plumber who worked on a care residence (Health Act 2007 [Care and Welfare of Residents in Designated Centres for Older People] Regulations 2013) and now thinks those regs are applicable to private houses.

i personally havent heard of any temp restriction of hot water in a private domestic situation.

dragonfly!

Hi there
Ours was set at 40 when we moved in.
We reset this to 50 as we both have long hot showers
As part of our BER assessment there was a section saying it should be at 60...
We have left it as it is for now and will review as the years go on

Dudda

In hospitals and some other large buildings you need it at 48 degrees. The hot water circulates in a loop constantly so the pipes always have hot water set at 60 degrees to prevent Legionella. You get instant hot water as it's circulating and therefore less water wastage waiting for hot water but higher energy losses due to the water constantly flowing around the pipes even when the taps aren't on. At each tap you've a thermistor reducing the temperature to 48 degrees for safety. It's all about safety, reducing dead legs and stagnant water safety. Worked on a hospital job where we had trouble getting the circulating water up to 60 degrees as it was such a long loop in an old building. Nightmare... well for the M&E not me.

For domestic you don't have any of these regulations. I know some people with large homes who put in the circulating hot water return to have instant hot water. For a large house, personally I prefer a central manifold with small bore pipes to each outlet so you get the hot water faster but don't have the circulation wastage. You can pretty much do whatever you want in a private house so set the temperature to whatever you want.

Thoie

While instant hot water would be nice, I'm OK with waiting for it to come through, as long as it's bloody hot when it turns up Showers are pathetic at the moment, despite being a supposedly pumped system. I have to have the hot on absolute max to have a bearable temperature, and then the pressure is useless. Plumber has been a few times but told me nothing could be done because "it's the law". He's coming back on Thursday, so just wanted to double check before talking to him next. Thanks all.