¤¤ Tankless Water Heaters ¤¤

Tankless Water Heaters or Demand Water Heaters, simply heat water as you use it. They do not store heated water. The main purpose for a tankless water heater is to avoid the cost of maintaining the temperature of the hot water being stored in your regular water heater when you’re not using it. This requires continually reheating the water as the water temperature inside the tank continually drops.

The tankless hot water heater, on the other hand, only heats the water you are using. When your usage stops, the unit shuts off and doesn’t run again until you require more hot water.
Electric tankless heaters can be installed for point of use. In other words, you may want to install a sink in the garage and wish to have hot water there. The electric unit can be installed under the sink in the garage.

This eliminates having to run a “hot” water pipe to the garage from the house or having to install a regular tank type water heater in the garage. Cold water simply runs through the tankless heater and into the sink as you require it.

There are basically two energy supplies for tankless heaters: Electric and Gas.

Electric tankless heaters have the following advantages:

They require less space than gas heaters.
They require no flue.
They can be installed at specific points or use throughout the house for faster hot water supply.

Gas tankless heaters have two main advantages:

They are slightly more efficient than electric .
They will work during a power outage.

Many Tankless Water Heaters have a life expectancy of more than 20 years. They also have replaceable parts that extend their life by many more years. Conventional water heaters generally last 10 – 15 years

If your home uses 40 to 80 gallons of hot water daily, Tankless Water Heaters can be 10% – 30% more energy efficient than conventional storage tank water heaters.

Labels: tankless water heater

BENTON COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) - Benton County is home to a green technology company that could save you money on your water bill without forcing you to take cold showers.

EZ Tankless is a company that sells tankless water heaters. EZ Tankless employee Mike Pavuk said the concept and the size of the heater can be intimidating to new customers.

"They look at the unit, and it's so small compaired to a tank water heater, and they can't comprehend that it will produce enough hot water for them to take multiple showers at a time," said Pavuk.

Pavuk is quick to assure us that it can. The heater saves energy by only heating water when it's needed. When a customer turns on the hot water, a sensor is triggered that turns on the burners on the unit. The burners heat the water and hot water then flows continuously until it is shut off.

"When you turn the faucet off, it senses the flow has stopped and turns off the gas. So that's all the energy you're using. It's just that instant you're in the shower," said Pavuk.

A heater which runs only when it's needed is a completely different concept from the water heaters currently in most homes, which heat water continuously and store it until someone turns on a hot water faucet. Pavuk said you won't notice a difference in the bathroom, kitchen, or outdoor spigot: the change comes in your electric bill.

Pavuk said the tankless water heater pays for itself quickly, with some customers saving as much as $200 a year.

The cheapest tankless water heater EZ Tankless offers is the EZ Outdoor, which sells for $175. Their most expensive model at the moment is the EZ Hot Shot, which sells for around $600. The federal government offers a 30% tax credit for people who purchase.

Mike Pavuk said there have been some minor problems for well water users. He said that problem can be fixed with a water pressure regulator.

Pavuk said the tankless technology has been around for 50 years, but it hasn't been widely available in the United States. Pavuk said that this occured to one of the company's founders as he was on vacation. He said that the company found buyers swiftly after they made the heaters available in the United States.

Labels: bill, tankless water heater

In the era of ever increasing utility bills and shrinking storage space, tankless water heaters seem to be all the rage.  Let’s take a minute to discuss the benefits and disadvantages of going tankless.

Conventional water heaters require a great amount of time and energy to warm.  Tankless water heaters provide instant, unlimited access to hot water.  In fact, when installed at each hot water faucet, tankless water heaters can be up to 40% more energy efficient than the conventional water heaters and run at 99% efficiency (while brand new conventional heaters are at 80%).

Tankless water heaters also called instantaneous, continuous flow, inline, flash, on-demand or instant-on water heaters have been gaining popularity in recent years.  Tankless water heaters do not retain any significant water because they instantly heat water as it flows through the unit.  Smaller tankless heaters are usually installed at each point-of-use, while one larger model may provide all the hot water for an entire house.  These heaters can be up to 40% more energy efficient than conventional water heaters.

Point-of-use tankless water heaters are installed where the water is being used, so the water is almost instantly hot (ultimately saving water since it is wasted after turning on a faucet while waiting for it to heat.  This is due to the fact that the cold water in the pipes between the faucet and the water heater needs to be flushed out first).  Additionally, no hot water is left in the pipes after the water is shut off.  This ultimately saves more water and energy than centrally installed tankless water heaters.

Historically, point-of-use water heaters were electric, typically more expensive and less efficient than gas.  A gas tankless water heater can cut approximately 30% of a homeowner’s energy usage.

Advantages of tankless water heaters:

• Since water is heated only when needed, there is no hot water storage. With a tank, water is continuously kept hot even if it never gets used.


• Although flow rate determines the amount of hot water generated at one time, an unlimited supply of hot water is available.


• There is no stored water, so there is no risk of water damage from a leaking tank.


• Most tankless water heaters can be mounted on a wall.

Disadvantages of tankless water heaters:

• Installing a tankless system comes at an increased cost ($800 to $1,150 vs. $300 to $500 for conventional heaters), especially when installed in retro-fits.


• Practical tankless water heaters are limited to gas and electricity.  This disqualifies renewable energy sources such as solar because of the storage tank requirement.


• Tankless electric heaters, when installed in a large numbers of homes can create demand management problems for electrical utilities.  Because hot water use tends to peak at certain times of the day, they can cause short spikes in electricity demand.


• There is a short delay between the time the water begins to flow and when the heater activates the heating elements/gas burner.  Turning a hot water faucet on and off repeatedly can result in periods of hot water, then cold.


• In a tankless water heater, the faster the flow, the less time the water spends being heated.


• Tankless water heaters only heat water on demand; when installed far away from a faucet, the wait time for hot water increases.

Big, bulky water heaters are no longer the only way to keep the hot water flowing. Now tankless water heaters are the newest trend.

Inside a tankless water heater, an electronic ignition lights a gas flame, which heats water as it passes though the system. A few minutes later and hot water is delivered anywhere in your house.

"I was amazed at the efficiency of the units," says Joe St. Clair. He recently replaced his old water heater with a new tankless one. "Heating water when you need it made a lot more sense than heating water when you didn't need it."

St. Clair first learned about the tankless water heaters while teaching in China where space is limited. Now the units are being installed in the U.S. Besides saving space, the tankless water heaters also save energy.

"The energy efficiency of these units runs anywhere between 85 and 95 percent and from what I understand the efficiency of a standard tank unit runs about 65 percent."

On the downside, it takes awhile before the water runs hot and finding a plumber who knows how to install them can be a challenge. But on the plus side, you never run out of hot water.

"With the unit that we have we can run five faucets and the washing machine and never run out of hot water, because it just keeps producing as you need it," St. Clair said.

Texas Gas Service offers its customers a $300 incentive for installing a tankless water heater.

http://www.kvue.com/news/local/stories/060507kvuetankless-cb.1b5aae3b.html

Labels: demand water heater, tankless water heater, video

Q. One of my neighbors just had an instantaneous water heater installed in her house and she loves it. She says the salesman told her that it will save them a lot of money on their energy bills because it is so efficient. Are they that good?

A. The good news is that these appliances are growing in popularity because they are more energy-efficient than a standard home water heater. But the bad news is that they are growing in popularity ...

First, the good. Instantaneous (also called "demand" or "tankless" water heaters) have been around for a long time, especially in hot climates where they work most efficiently, and they do offer some significant advantages over conventional water heaters with tanks.

Their biggest benefit is that they don't heat the water until it is needed, so there are no heat losses from a storage tank (traditional water heaters operate occasionally to maintain the desired temperature level even when you are not turning on the faucet). Even the best water heater tanks lose heat into the air around them and turn on once in a while to reheat cooler water.

Browse through some of the web sites of companies selling these products and you'll see some pretty strong claims for big energy savings, many claiming as much as a 60 percent savings or even more.

Regardless of how much the actual savings are, they have other benefits beyond the economic. The units are fairly small in size so they take up much less room than a water heater and can be installed just about anywhere. They can also be used to resolve some problems homeowners have with traditional water heaters.

For example, you may have a bathroom at one end of your home that is on the other side of the house from the water tank, and the water never seems to get very hot there. You can put one of these units close to that bathroom and you'll have the hot water you want much quicker. And while these units do have some limits as to how much hot water they can provide at one time, you can install two or more together to give enough hot water for showers, dish washing and other uses all at the same time.

They are more expensive than buying a gas or electric water storage tank, but the savings may pay for that increase over time.

But like I said, there's a problem with the growing popularity of the electric units (that doesn't affect the use of gas ones). I talked with some people who work for utility companies and it seemed that the electric tankless water heaters have such a high demand for electricity that rather than being a nice, neat energy-saver, they actually have very large power demands. This can cause some problems for both the homeowner and the utility company.

Homeowners often find right from the start that the wiring in their home isn't suitable to meet the electrical demand when these units are used, a demand that can reach 30,000 watts or even more (compare this to the 4,500-watt demand of a conventional electric water heater). That can mean electrical work to upgrade the electrical circuits in the home, possibly even requiring a separate electrical panel and new wiring, costs that can run into the hundreds and even thousands of dollars and costs that will be borne by the homeowner, not the utility.

But the utility is going to need more heavy-duty wires, meters, transformers and other equipment for the spikes in generation they've got to meet. And at some utilities these costs are going to get paid through increases in all of the electric rates over time. At other utilities, the entire cost of these upgrades is charged directly to the customer who purchases the high demand electric water heater.

So my recommendations are that you learn as much as you can about instantaneous water heaters (there are lots of great web sites and many companies selling them), and think about your home's hot water needs. If you find that this product would work well for you, next contact your local utility before committing to any purchase. And please consider the gas rather than electric units to avoid creating a problem for utilities that will only get worse as more of the units are used.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070609/NEWS/706090305/1001/BUSINESS

Labels: demand water heater, green, tankless water heater, water heater

Three brands of tankless hot water heaters have been identified as potential sources of deadly carbon monoxide emissions, prompting a voluntary recall of the systems by Rheem Manufacturing, and Paloma Industries Inc. before they make people sick - or worse.

Signs of carbon monoxide poisoning range from flu-like symptoms, to dizziness, headaches, nausea, vomiting, or fainting spells. If you have any, or all of these symptoms, open the windows of your home and seek medical attention immediately.

In February, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission together with CSA International cited three models of the Power Vent Tankless Water Heater because of a defective switch caused by the shifting of components inside the heater when it was moved, likely just before installation. Even if the heater was hooked up by a licensed professional and inspected, a filter door may not work properly, leading to the release of deadly carbon monoxide into the home.

That's exactly what happened to Matt Varble in Clinton, Illinois. When the carbon monoxide detectors went off in his brand-new house on Christmas Day last year, he couldn't trace the source and installed a costly air exchanger to ward off the deadly emissions. It wasn't until later, when he was poking around the Internet and read about the recall on LawyersandSettlements.com.

He realized only then that his expensive tankless water heater, only a few months old, was the likely culprit.

Tankless water heaters were designed to be more efficient and better for the environment than hot water tanks, because they heat water on demand. Instead of the traditional round water tank that's always full and takes energy to keep the water hot - the tankless system is a rectangular box with piping at the top and bottom, and heats only what you need.

The problem has to do with the way a tankless heater works. It requires more air to operate than traditional hot water tanks, and also needs to be properly vented. As well, the air filter door needs to be in just the right spot for the tank to operate safely. Shipping may have affected a switch that controls the positioning of the filter door.

This door is the thing that has everybody worried. If the switch is defective, and the filter door is out of whack, you could wind up with carbon monoxide poisoning.

Affected are three models of the Power Vent 199,990 BTUH Tankless Water Heater under the brands Rheem, Ruud, Richmond, Rheem-Ruud, and Paloma. The recall went into effect on February 21st 2007 and affects $55 million dollars worth of indoor tankless water heaters. In the United States and Canada, the manufacturer will repair the defect for free, although Illinois' Matt Varble would prefer a replacement unit. He paid three times what it would have cost him for a traditional hot water tank, only to be faced with a situation that may put his family at risk.

He's not alone. 42,000 tankless systems were sold to contractors and consumers from May 2004 until December 2006, and all are included in the recall.

Homeowners should be aware of the type of system they have, and if it is tankless - make a note of the model and serial number and contact the manufacturer right away. You'll find the information on the rating plate - which is a small, silver sticker located on the lower, right-hand corner of the front panel.

If the filter door appears to be out of place, or if you have been feeling ill for no apparent reason, DON'T use your hot water and consult your doctor, or go to the hospital for potential C02 poisoning. A blood test will show if you've been exposed to carbon monoxide, which can be deadly.

Like having a smoke detector, it's always good advice to install working CO2 detectors on every level of your home, outside sleeping areas, to protect you from accidental exposure to carbon monoxide, regardless of the source.

As for a defective tankless hot water system, it's the manufacturer's responsibility. If you have fallen ill, or if you have spent your own money on repairs or upgrades where the tankless hot water heater is found to be at fault, you should be compensated.

By Gordon Gibb
http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/00794/water-heater-recall.html

Labels: tankless water heater, water heater, water heaters

It's spendy, but it's efficient, tiny, quiet, green and pays itself off in a few years. It's called the "tankless" or on-demand water heater — and it won't sit there wasting dollars by running hour after hour when you don't need it.

A heated coil — usually by gas or propane (although sometimes electric) — fills with water and gets very hot, very quickly when you turn on the shower, dishwasher or faucet. It continues heating the water as long as you leave that faucet on.

The smaller units, starting at $700 (uninstalled) will meet one demand point — but you can't run the dishwasher and take a shower, says Brian Lambert of Grover Electric in Medford. For about $1,000, you get a larger one that serves both. Prices top out at about $1,500; so, units initially cost two to three times more than the traditional water heater.

On-demand water heaters face a problem as the new kid on the block, but Josh Spoklie of Ferguson Bath & Kitchen Gallery in Medford says he sells 25 or 30 a month. This is about a fifth of the number of traditional water heaters he moves.

The tankless units are little guys — about the size of a small suitcase — and can be hung on the wall of a closet, as long as it's an outside wall, so exhaust gases can be vented. It's safe and silent and has an energy-efficiency quotient of 92 to 98 percent.

Aside from startup and retrofit costs, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy lists drawbacks as:

They won't turn on unless they can supply half to three-quarters of a gallon per minute.
They sometimes won't supply simultaneous uses, especially in winter when incoming water is colder.

The high cost can be retired in about 31/2 to 4 years with reduced energy bills, Spoklie says.

Equally attractive are a slew of rebates and tax credits: $200 from Avista for switching to gas, a $340 tax credit from the state and a $150 tax credit for water heaters with at least 95 percent efficiency. The state tax credits for energy-miser appliances are at www.oregon.gov/ENERGY/CONS/RES/tax/waterheaters.shtml.

If you get a modest on-demand water heater and find you need more heating power, you don't have to upgrade — just get another one and link them in series, says Don Sample of Budge-McHugh Supply in Medford.

If you want a testimonial yourself, ask around at restaurants, where chefs need lots of hot water every moment — they are big buyers of demand water heaters, says Terry Powell of Modern Plumbing in Medford.

"They pay off quick in a restaurant," Powell says. "They will stay up with any demand."

Bruce Fiero of Will Power Electric, a green energy installer in Phoenix, says tankless water heaters run you about $1,000 installed and, because your water heater is not "on" all the time, will definitely make a dent in your heating bill.

John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070510/LIFE/705100308

Labels: demand water heater, tankless water heater, water heater, water heaters