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> I figured in some rural areas this may not be the case, though. If, for
> instance, the water were coming from a well...
In rural areas there will usually be a water reservoir on or inside a hill
somewhere nearby. If you water pressure is really so low that adding a tank
in the roof helps, then you are going to have other problems with washing
machines and boilers, I've seen some of them that demand a minimum water
pressure of 1 bar.
> How do the on-demand hot water systems work, btw?
A pipe off from the mains cold supply goes into the boiler, gets heated, and
then goes to all the hot taps. A flow-rate sensor detects when a hot tap is
turned on and fires up the boiler. It is the same boiler that does the
central heating, usually a smallish wall mounted unit like this:
http://www.petesheating.co.uk/images/examples/boiler_in_cupboard_2.jpg
(You can see in that photo there probably used to be a hot water tank there)
Advantages are higher efficiency, more space (no hot or cold tanks needed)
and unlimited hot water. The disadvantage is that unless you have a really
beefy boiler and gas supply, the hot water isn't going to come out as fast
as if you had a tank. For a shower this is usually not noticed because the
pressure is much higher, but you'll notice when it takes 2x longer to fill
the bath!
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