Do you realize you are paying to heat water 24 hours a day? You are if you have a standard water heater. A tankless water heater is a much more energy efficient way to heat water and it provides an endless supply of hot water for your entire home. You don't have to heat and reheat a reserve of water sitting in your hot water tank.
Tankless water heaters are up to 50 percent more energy efficient than a traditional natural gas water heater and up to 70 percent more efficient than an electric water heater. They turn off automatically when hot water is not needed. The units are great space savers too because they are small and mounted to the wall. One of the products I am most familiar with is Rinnai. They are easy to install and my clients have been extremely happy with them. This is an excellent first step toward adopting a "Build Green" philosophy in your home.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Tankless Water Heaters
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I have heard that water take a little while to heat up in a tankless.... and also, you may be more prone to hot surges when turning on other sources of water in the house... is this something you have heard of?
Thanks for your comment. The actual heat up time is 4 seconds. There are many different factors involved. With a typical water heater, the water is kept at the set temp,let's say 120 degrees. Some houses have a recirculating system that circles hot water in the pipes so that hot water comes out almost instantly. Most houses do not have that system and the standing water in the pipes gets cold. That's why in the morning on the second floor, it takes a little while to flush out the cold water to get to the hot. With a tankless, you would add 4 seconds to that time. The decision is whether you want to heat 75 gallons of water 24/7 at 120 or do you want to heat on demand.
When the 75 gallons runs out after two or three showers in a row, you have to wait for that add'l 75 gallons to heat to 120. With the tankless, the supply of hot is as long as you are demanding it. You can also install a recirc system at an add'l cost. This would solve some of the issues with wait time.
In regards to your surge question. If your are using hot water with a shower, finish the shower and two minutes later turn on your sink, cold water gets sandwiched in between the two hot water demands. It's actually called water sandwiching. The temp, however, is still at 120, before and after. You just get some cold in between and many would consider that a surge. When there is not a call for hot, the unit powers down. therefore the 4 second rule kicks in. With a tank heater the hot that's in the line stays there for the next time you use it.
The other problem that most people do not realize is that the source of gas needs to have enough volume to fire the amount of heat at the water it needs to continue to run at a consistent temperature. This has to do with the actual meter as well as the size of gas pipe and the location of the unit in relation to the meter. One unit can handle about two showers at a time. It boils down to gallons of water per minute. So it could be that too many calls are being made on the system at once, or the gas supply is not sufficient. If usage at the same time is an issue, then more than one unit can be hooked up in a parallel series to handle the need. It just costs more money. For example, some of the larger, higher end homes have three heaters in a series. These are some of the reasons that it is important to have traineprofessional on the system install it. Many of the warranties are not valid unless a certified installer has done the work.g
It is really a pretty incredible system. The size is so small you could put it your overhead bin on United flight 901. I am currently working for two clients who have both recently moved here from Europe. They have been using the tankless for years overseas and were surprised at the concept of a hot water tank. They want them removed asap and replaced with tankless.
These are not easy questions to answer with one or two quick sentences but I hope I have been able to shed some light.
j
My Co is "Tankless Hot-H2o Sysytems" {based here in chicago}'& I'll Be the first to admit...sizing is everything...and consirdering going tankless can get quite expensive..But the long thing is allways better:::$$$$ & it's so kool $ futureistic...."D"
Post a Comment