No way to put the main water heater close to where it's needed? I was lucky on my house; the water heater is in the basement directly below the bathroom. The run from heater to showerhead is probably 10 feet so very little cold water has to be run outta there. It isn't much further at all to the bathroom sink, the washing machine is about 5 feet away from the water heater, and the only other hot water demand is the kitchen sink which has the longest run at, oh, 20 feet. Even though my plumbing is nicely concentrated towards the center of the house I have gone through and put those foam sleeves on the hot water lines, and also on the sump discharge line because that one used to form condensation in the summer. I cannot say how much they help as the system was always pretty good anyway... but they have to help! They just have to!
Maybe that house is just too big.
