Wow! It’s’ minus 20 degrees outside. Nothing gives you pleasure more than to take a warm shower or bath this winter. Taking a hot shower is equal to relaxing and soothing for the body and mind in summer too. Besides relaxation, a hot shower has lots of health benefits. Our skin becomes dull and darker after a hard working day because of clogging pores due to dust, pollution, and toxins. A hot shower after that hard day will help clean your skin acne and remove annoying back and whiteheads.
Are you suffering muscle pain? The most natural solution to relieve muscular pain is to take a hot water shower. It helps to increase muscle temperature, thus relax the pain in minutes. You might be surprised to hear that a hot water shower before a stress entire exercise will help to release a copious amount of heat stress protein (HSP), which helps boost the performance.
To get all this benefit, we have to have a good water heater. Several water heaters are available in the market, primarily tankless or instantaneous, and a traditional storage-type water heater is widely used. Typically, a question arises in our mind, how much hot is suitable for our skin? Here we try to discuss the temperature settings of the commonly used storage type water heater to get this answer.
About the question of temperature setting, two things come to our mind first –
- If we set too high a temperature, there have a chance to be scalded by hot water.
- If we set too low a temperature, there is a risk of growing pathogens like Legionnaires’ disease.
What is it means by too high or too low temperature to understand? We may visit the World Health Organization website. As per WHO
Temperature vs. chances of growing pathogens (Legionella Bacteria)
Above 70°C (158°F) – dies all bacteria instantly
At 60°C (140°F) – 90% die within 2 minutes
At 50°C (122°F) – depending on strain 90% died in 80 -124 minutes,
At 48°C – 50°C (118°F – 122°F) – can survive but lost the ability of multiplication
At 32°C – 42°C (90°F – 108°F) – ideal temperature range for growth
We found a chart on temperature vs. time of scalding at professionals and home renovating experts of remove and replace the website.
Temperature vs. Time to proceed scalding/burn
At 120 °F – more than 5 minutes
At 125 °F – 1½ to 2 minutes
At 130 °F – about 30 seconds
At 135 °F – about 10 seconds
At 140 °F – about 5 seconds
At 145 °F – less than 5 seconds
At 150 °F – about 1 – ½ seconds
At 155 °F – in a seconds
Cautions: In case of severe burns, immediately put the burned area in clean water
The US Department of Energy and Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recommends 120°F temperature for standard water heaters. In contrast, another government agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), recommends 140°F temperature for the public’s safety. Now let’s arguing on this dilemma below –
The arguments for 120°F temperature setting:
If we set the water heater temperature at 120°F, we may get the following advantages as advised by the American Society of Sanitary Engineering –
It helps to cut down bills.
Savings come from turning down the temperature of your water heater subjected to standby losses and consumption. For each 10 degrees reduction, we can save 3-5% from our utility bills. For example, if we set 120°F instead of 140°F, we may hold about $36 – $61 a year from standby heat losses and more than $400 from demand loss (according to the department of energy).
Environmental Friendly
By saving energy bills, we can protect our environment as well. For example, if we set the water heater’s temperature at 120°F, it will burn less gas or fuel or consume less electricity. This way, it leads to emit fewer greenhouse gases, which helps us to save our environment.
Resist deposition of mineral
Complex water buildup mineral deposition like lime inside the hot water tank and plumbing pipes. If your household water is hard, by lowering the temperature of your water heater, you may be delaying the deposition of minerals.
Prevent to be scalding
If you have a child and elderly member in your home, they are more vulnerable to scalding by hot water of 140°F; it takes only 5 seconds. But if you set the temperature at 120°F, scalding delayed up to 5 minutes.
The arguments for 140° F temperature setting:
We see lots of benefits to set the temperature at 120°F, so why we go for a higher temperature.
A study by Janet E. Stout, Ph.D., Director of the Pittsburgh-based Special Pathogens Laboratory, warns that Legionella bacteria can flourish in stagnant water in tanks that semi-simmering at 100° to 110°.
According to WHO, the chances of growing Legionella Bacteria is low if set the temperature at 120°F. But it still risks for those who are suffering autoimmune diseases like pneumonia. To remove Legionella bacteria, you should set the temperature at 140°F if you have a family member with an autoimmune disease.
The recommended temperature is 50 – 60 °C (122 – 140 °F) for the dishwasher to get the optimum result. This is because the new modern dishwasher has a built-in internal heating system but it absent in the old type. So you have to set 140°F if you are still using an old type dishwasher.
Copper pipelines are heated faster than PEX and remain for an hour; thus, the risk of growing Legionella Bacteria in PEX is more than that of copper pipes.
Some branches of pipelines remain unused or rarely used in the big houses, which deposit stagnant water. The stagnant water of dead legs is an excellent breeding ground for Legionella Bacteria, as the temperature does not rise like the main.
How you check your current temperature Settings?
Most water heaters on the market lack a temperature gauge. We can get an idea about the current temperature by seeing the thermostat temperature setting at the water heater body. But in most cases, it is not clear enough.
Also, we can measure the temperature with a cooking thermometer. Set a particular point of the thermostat, turn it on, wait for some time, then take flow from the faucet nearest to the water heater and measured it with a thermometer.
Which temperature setting is most suitable for you?
We have found two completely different but equally essential views from the above discussion. One says to save your child or older person from scalded and to save energy cost it is better to set the temperature at 120 degrees, and another says lower the temperature will increase the risk of pathogens growth.
Ways to solve this dilemma
Every action there is equal and opposite reactions, so this problem also has a valuable alternative. If you set priority on the risks of growing bacteria and also want to save your child and old family members from scalding, you can place an anti-scald device. Now you can set 140 degrees to kill harmful pathogens, and the anti-scald valve will save your family members from burning.
How to Adjust Water Heater Temperature
Also, you may change your old water heater with a new instantaneous or tankless one. The on-demand water heater has a digital temperature controller with a monitor. So you can set the temperature as per your demand, and it is not so expensive as you consider the savings for a year. On top of that, it is environment-friendly also.