> 1. Eating and drinking from plastics (This includes aluminum cans which are plastic lined) [a]
So drinking containers should generally be ceramic, glass, or stainless steel?
So drinking containers should generally be ceramic, glass, or stainless steel?
Even water supplies in a house will typically have been in contact with plastics—at the treatment plant, in the house for any modern house (they're pretty much all PEX now, since it's stupid-easy and fast to install, which means it's very cheap), in the hot water heater if they're any hot water mixed in (ever start with a hot tap for water you're gonna boil?), if you've got a filter system that's almost certainly full of plastic, and so on.
You'd also have to avoid canned goods of all kinds, not just bottled/canned drinks. Store-bought canned foods have plastic liners, which all but completely solved problems with canned-good spoilage that we used to have, but does mean ~all canned goods are sitting in plastic, not metal, effectively. Glass-canned might be better but are usually more expensive and there's still plastic on the inside of the lids (how much that matters, I do not know—I'd expect very little, but sometimes these things are surprising, for all I know those inside-the-lids bits use exceptionally awful plastic or something).
I've been told I shouldn't do this, so I don't, but I always feel like a rube waiting for a big pot of pasta water to boil from cold when I know I could have just used my giant tank of heated water and save 10 minutes of waiting...
The solution was a header tank in the attic. This stored water from the supply and fed it down to the hot water cylinder, providing some pressure.
The problem is the header tanks weren't a sealed system so animals could make their way in. In particular when using rodent control poison as this makes them seek water. Generally it'd be noticed pretty quickly, but not immediately.
So the hot water was generally safe for washing but shouldn't be used for drinking or cooking.
With modern closed systems (from the 70s onwards really) this isn't an issue.
The water department for the City of Denver still recommends not to use hot water:
> Hot water systems like tanks and boilers contain metallic parts that corrode as time goes by, contaminating the water. Hot water also dissolves contaminants in pipes faster than cold water.
* https://www.denverwater.org/tap/psa-dont-drink-or-cook-with-...
Also Vancouver (BC):
> Confused, I decided to send the question over to Metro Vancouver, which provides water to most of the 2 million residents in the Vancouver region. Bill Morrell, Metro’s media relations guy, quickly got me this answer from Bob Jones, their water quality expert. The bottom line: Use cold water for boiling.
* https://vancouversun.com/news/staff-blogs/why-you-shouldnt-u...
EPA:
> 2. USE ONLY COLD WATER FOR COOKING AND DRINKING. Do not cook with, or drink water from the hot water tap. Hot water can dissolve more lead more quickly than cold water. If you need hot water, draw water from the cold tap and then heat it.
* https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-09/documents/20...
Nowadays if you have a hot water cylinder it's impossible for anything to get in there(although there is still a chance of bacteria growing inside the tank, but any modern cylinder will periodically heat itself to very high temperature to kill any pathogens)
Also good in cold climates as they can stretch if the water expands after freezing: they'll shrink back to the original size (esp. PEX-A/Uponor) which may help reduce the chances of the house being flooded.
Once copper bursts that hole is permanent.
Depending on your system this might have no impact, my hot and cold water come from the same place and the hot water is heated 1m away from my sink by an electrical heater
[0] https://www.snowpeak.com/collections/drinkware/products/tita... There are many. This is my favorite.