A little help please...hot water heater...

roccman

Hot water heater died after 15 years.

Most effecient HWH (30-50 gallon range)?

Solar?

Thanks in advance.

(note to pops: I can guess that there are reams of info on this topic in the planning thread...as soon as admin gets the search feature fix I am sure I would not have to have started a new thread...until then...)
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dunewalker

Plumb it into your woodstove. Don't waste your $ buying back into a collapsing sytem. Any old tank that isn't leaking will do nicely for this, mounted higher on the wall than the stove...
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smallpoxgirl · Moderator Joined: Nov 08, 2004 Posts: 6278

On-demand (aka tankless) water heaters are awesome. It's one of those ridiculous American extravagance things to store up 30 gallons of hot water just in case you might want to take a shower at some point in the day. On demand heaters use a lot less energy because they don't heat the water until you're ready to use it. A side benefit is that you never have to worry about running out of hot water.

link
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Cashmere · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Mar 27, 2008 Posts: 1971

220V electric.

Cheap, probably good for 15 years, during which the power will probably be on.
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Jack · Dark Lord Joined: Aug 11, 2004 Posts: 5123

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Auntie_Cipation · Heavy Crude Joined: Aug 18, 2005 Posts: 100

Shannymara

Lehman's sells parts to do the wood stove route, though you can probably find them cheaper elsewhere. I highly recommend this book, though:

Hot Water from your Woodstove

Very important to ensure pressure doesn't cause explosion. Smile

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smallpoxgirl · Moderator Joined: Nov 08, 2004 Posts: 6278

Quinny · Intermediate Crude Joined: Jul 03, 2008 Posts: 571

I'd seriously consider a rocket stove. The small one I saw boiled a pan of hot water in about 2 minutes using a bit of scrap wood. The same size pan (about 12 pints) took 9.5 minutes on our large double gas ring!
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roccman

I hate plumbing!!!!!!! Copper breaks after a couple bends...(add to notes I took over the past 2 decades on other HWH installs!!!!)

arghhhhhhhhhh!!!

ok - centered...breathing regularly now...cops have left...

Thanks everyone...!!
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"There must be a bogeyman; there always is, and it cannot be something as esoteric as "resource depletion." You can't go to war with that." Emersonbiggins

"... hope is a rotten-thighed whore" Niko Kazantzakis

We are going back to roccland - me

Ludi

Personally, I would prefer to have a redundant system of a waterback for the woodstove (we don't have a waterback) and a solar water heating system.

We'll be installing a solar water heater when we finish our south porch.
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Heineken

I have actually considered disconnecting my hot water heater altogether. Cold showers during our long, long summer and just use a washcloth in the winter. More elbow grease when washing dishes (I don't have an electric dishwasher).

And in winter I always keep a pot of hot water on the woodstove (a low-tech version of Dune's advice), so I'd have some hot water then. But in summertime, forget it---can't fire up that woodstove, ever!

I would have done this by now, but my companion won't hear of it (and the deal is he buys most of the food and I pay the electric bill---a darned good deal for me, so far at least).

Wonder why we call it a hot water heater? Could it be a cold water heater?? (English is so strange.)
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cualcrees

Here's a pic of my solar water heater; we had it installed a couple of years ago, and it has been working beautifully!

It costs about $700 usd. here in Mexico, and it holds about 130 lts.

[img]http://img89.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc01535bt5.jpg[/img]

PeakOiler

Check this thread:
Water Heating Thread
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