I am typically the first one in my house to take a shower and I like hot showers. I have noticed that if I take a shower first, the hot water is not that hot and doesn’t last very long. But if others take showers before me and the hot water has to recharge then the hot water is HOT and lasts a long time.
I have a 50 gallon hot water tank.
The only two things I have (besides sinks and showers) that use hot water are a dumb dishwasher and a dumb washing machine.
What I was thinking was to set up an automation in HA to somehow trigger something to use hot water for like 10 minutes in order to get the hot water heater to recharge.
Any ideas?
Lots of other good ideas here. I’ll just add some thoughts.
Adding some pipe insulation from the hot water heater to your shower might help a bit.
I suppose you could add some instant hot water heater system or even a second small hot water heater close to your shower to eliminate the heat up time.
If you are this interested it might be worth having a plumber come out to consult about what the issue might be and what the possibilities are. A lot might depend on your specific setup and how accessible the pipes are without completely ripping apart your walls.