You know what's been annoying me lately
I have a heat pump water heater that uses ENORMOUSLY less energy than my kettle to do the same job, but of course We Do Not Drink From The Hot Tap
Like if I'm boiling water for hot water bottles or for doing those boil-in-the-bag packet curries then I'll fill the kettle from the hot tap and use way less energy than if I'd filled it from the cold tap, but water that's come from the hot tap should never go in my mouth
Like it uses so much less power that I'm wondering about, like, I dunno, coil of copper pipe from the heat pump water heater immersed in drinking water from the cold tap?
Doing an internet search why shouldn't I draw kettle water from the hot tap like Bilbo Baggins muttering at the ring
@ifixcoinops hot water leaches more heavy metals from old pipes. @whimsy
@twistylittlepassages @ifixcoinops This is what I've always heard as well. I also grew up in extremely old houses. Now that my current house has been re-plumbed and the pipes are some kind of safe* plastic, I now use the hot tap when cooking.
*Safe, but in 20 years there will research that will show this was just as bad as swallowing lead pellets and brushing with radioactive toothpaste.
@whami @ifixcoinops maybe 15-20 years ago I received info (a mass mailer) from the city of Portland, Oregon advising me not to consume hot tap water for this reason (more likely to release lead and other toxic metals in pipes -- even "lead-free" metal pipes are permitted to contain a tiny percentage of lead in the US!).
Will, I think your footnote is right on. if there's one thing humans are good at, it's poisoning themselves 
@ifixcoinops @twistylittlepassages @whami yeah definitely enough led in the pipes around here that i’ll take a pass on drinking from the hot water tanks!
but theres also the legionnaires disease issue (unless you keep your tank above 135F / 57 C) so even if i was completely confident your pipes and tank is heavy metals free i’m not sure i’d risk it…
