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Water Heater Help
Ed_McCarron:
Be sure to verify that your vent ducting can handle the increased flue gas volume, as well as your natural gas supply. Some people have reported having to upsize supply lines/regulators/meters.
YMMV. I've stuck with plain old natural gas tanked (and pilot lit) heaters.
Blanka:
That is why our heaters have a complete separate venting pipe through the wall or roof. Because it is operated by a fan, heat can be removed completely from the exhaust air without halting natural convection becoming a problem. It is so efficient, that even part of the electricity used for the fan generates usable heat, hence the >100% efficiency. We also use continuous pulse-heating, to keep the heating water at a constant 40-50 degrees celcius. Much more efficient than old fashioned burst heating to 80 or 90 degrees. Combined with low-capacity low-temp radiators or floor heating, you can heat very fast and with even less gas use.
MonMotha:
--- Quote from: SavannahLion on December 26, 2011, 02:05:15 am ---Holy crap, they still make pilot light tanks? I should start taking a closer look at those older homes.
Quite honestly, I thought those all disappeared due to all the energy saving madness that's been going around.
--- End quote ---
On a tank style heater, the energy penalty is minimal. The small amount of heat produced by the pilot light keeps the tank from cooling down as fast. It's also pretty hard to get wrong compared to hot surface ignitors.
--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on December 26, 2011, 05:22:28 am ---It's a common mis-conception.
Natural gas water heaters, in either form, are generally more efficient than their electric counterparts. The added benefit of havng water even when the power goes off is nice as well. Of course the downside is having to run gas lines through your house. It is a pretty hard thing to find in recent construction.
Most that even have electric ignition are capable of being manually lit. Or at least so I've read. We always get one with a pilot light.
--- End quote ---
Depends on your definition of "efficiency" :) Electric tank water heaters (using immersion heating elements) are essentially 100% efficient. That is, basically all the energy you put into them is transferred to the water. However, electricity is much more expensive per unit energy (e.g. btu, joule, etc.) than natural gas is, at least in most areas. So, even though you may be throwing 30%+ of the thermal energy up the flue on a natural gas water heater, it still costs less to operate than an electric model. The modern units achieve quite a bit better transfer efficiency than the old style ones, too, but it's still not 100%.
I'm not sure why you say piping natural gas into a home is a "hard thing" in recent construction. A lot of new homes have gone to using those darned flexible natural gas lines. I don't like them (they apparently fare very poorly if the gas lines are struck by lightning and can result in a fire), but they're common and popular since they're easy as all get out to install. Every home I've seen built recently in an area with natural gas service has pipes installed for at least the furnace and usually hot water, as well.
Now, I think the US still on the average does a pitifully bad job in terms of energy efficiency, but that's due to people saving on initial construction costs when they maybe shouldn't. You can get some pretty fancy furnaces, water heaters, etc. around here.
I still get irked by the darned heat pump vendors claiming their COP of 6 means it's "600% efficient". Any real engineer would conk that marketroid over the head with a stack of engineering forms on a clipboard.
wizkid32:
Um, not sure why you're posting this in an arcade forum. ??? That said, I know very little about this stuff...
Ridgefire:
--- Quote from: wizkid32 on December 28, 2011, 01:22:05 am ---Um, not sure why you're posting this in an arcade forum. ??? That said, I know very little about this stuff...
--- End quote ---
I figured most of the people on here have water heaters in their homes. And I posted it in the "everything else" section. And after reading these replies I'm glad I did post it. I've learned quite a bit.
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