I tried to aim for "realism" by computing the amount of heat capacity that water in a single piece of pipe would contain, in the same fashion done by Corrected Water mod.
But you do have a point regarding inconvenient gameplay.
If I remember correctly, 0.15 will have mod options setting. I will add the support for being able to adjust it in game (with a lower default value) - although I suspect that this might become obsolete due to the boiler changes and the new nuclear power and so on.
In the meantime, you can edit the files yourself. Should be simple enough, since it is a single file with bunch of multiplications.