Just like that previous "mystery button" AskMeFi, except 100 years newer
January 22, 2018 11:59 AM   Subscribe

I'm moving into a brand new "upgraded" home. What are these mystery doorbell looking buttons in the kitchen and master bath? The last time this question was asked on the green, the home was 100 years old.

I'm about to sign a lease on a home built in 2017 in Irvine, CA (Piedmont development in Eastwood Village, if it matters), and I'm pretty out of my element when it comes to fancy upgrades in brand new expensive houses. One example: bathrooms have fans that automatically come on if humidity gets too high because of showering.

Anyway, the home has these indoor doorbell buttons in the kitchen and the master bath. The pictures without the signs (if there was ever a need for "ENHANCE!!" to actually, work, this is it) are the actual buttons in the home, the other pictures are screenshots from the 360 degree walkthrough of the model home on the website.

The top result for "mystery button in house" is this AskMeFi from 2008 about a 100 year old home with a similar button, but that was probably for summoning servants. This home is big enough for some sort of intercom I guess, but there was no speaker. Plus, only master bath to kitchen seems to be weird intercom setup anyway.

Any idea what they are? Seems like something fancy enough to get called out as a feature in the website walkthrough. Our rental agent didn't know, and I pushed both buttons and nothing happened. Also, the landlord of this place is a Chinese national in China, so it isn't possible to talk to anyone who actual bought the place.
posted by sideshow to Home & Garden (12 answers total)
 
Best answer: Hot water on demand button? I feel like the sign says "Push button to _____________ the hot water _______________ system" and those locations would make sense.
posted by jessamyn at 12:06 PM on January 22, 2018


Best answer: I know buttons basically all look the same but this page does have an example of a doorbell type button that is used for activating the hot water.
posted by jessamyn at 12:08 PM on January 22, 2018


Best answer: Does it have a tankless water heating system? It's certainly new enough to have one; maybe have someone stand next to one while you push the button, to see if it activates anything there. A system with a hot water tank wouldn't make sense to activate locally, since hot water's always available on demand with a proper working tank system.
posted by Sunburnt at 12:10 PM on January 22, 2018


Best answer: "push button to activate the hot water recirculation system" matches the blurry text pretty well.
posted by zamboni at 12:12 PM on January 22, 2018 [2 favorites]


Best answer: They look exactly like the push button for the Navien NPE-A series tankless water heater.
posted by zamboni at 12:16 PM on January 22, 2018 [3 favorites]


Best answer: I think Jessamyn has it: Fancy homes run the hot water feed to the hot taps on a pressurised loop, so it can be pumped round the loop & kept hot. This way you get hot water the moment you turn on the hot tap, instead of having to wait for the cold water from the pipe to drain first (and in the case of hot water on demand systems, for the burner to fire up & heat up the element etc etc).

Running this loop of hot water continuously is ruinous for the environment (you can guess what the early implementations did!), so having a button by the light switches to turn them on when needed makes perfect sense - hit the button when you walk in the room & by the time you get to the point where you want to turn the hot tap on the water in the pipe is already hot. What’s not to like?
posted by pharm at 12:45 PM on January 22, 2018


Best answer: Eh, It's not a terrible economic or environmental burden to run a hot water recirculation line, as long as the pipes are properly insulated. I would say the cold water you dump down the drain to flush out of the line isn't any better for the environment.

Most systems have a single thermostat-driven recirculation pump and a recirculation line that taps off the furthest (or sometimes, most important) fixture. I assume the kitchen and master bath fixtures are on entirely separate supply lines that makes a single loop undesirable, so having a push button for each is a decent compromise. Push the button, wait a moment, and you have piping hot water at the ready with no waste. Fancy!
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 1:03 PM on January 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Yep, there is a tankless hot water heater. Based on some other features of the house (ex: Rain Bird Smart Irrigation System), having instant hot water without wasting energy keeping it hot makes sense.

I'm not there to 100% confirm, but I'm pretty sure that this what the button is for.

Thanks all.
posted by sideshow at 1:37 PM on January 22, 2018


Best answer: This is particularly relevant in California, where new developments often have to adhere to pretty strict water-use requirements. By reducing the amount of cold water (transported from hundreds of miles away, literally pumped over mountains at enormous expense) dumped down the drain, these systems actually save quite a bit of energy.
posted by rockindata at 1:40 PM on January 22, 2018 [2 favorites]


ya that whole ruinous for the environment thing tossed me. i'm agreeing that it is for a hot water supply
posted by patnok at 2:33 PM on January 22, 2018


Early ones were ruinous because they ran the hot water constantly, using lots of extra energy to keep it heated and moving. This version seems nicely efficient.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 2:50 PM on January 22, 2018 [2 favorites]


As a resident of a place where water is (usually) available in superabundance, I have to admit that the water-saving aspect hadn’t occurred to me & I was focused more on the energy wasting aspect of running the hot water heater continuously to keep the loop hot, with some extra hyperbole thrown on top !
posted by pharm at 4:28 AM on January 23, 2018


« Older Should I repair damage on leased vehicle?   |   Workflow using SharePoint 2010 or Python 3.x or ? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.