ecogeek.org— Finally water heaters have come under EPA regulation, and we're about to see huge improvements in efficiency. This means lower heating bills, less energy use, and less greenhouse gases.
Apr 5, 2008View in Crawl 4
I rather like the idea of using one tankless unit everywhere you want hot water (IE, one per bathroom, one in the kitchen), and not having to run two full sets of supply lines throughout the house. Also, if any of them fails, you'd still have hot water elsewhere in the house.-jcr
see: nuclear materials recyclingAlso note the new technologies to directly capture radiation into electricity, as well as the microbes that eat radiation.
"Because the new device uses a heat exchanger, it will actually make your furnace work harder during the winter. But in the summer, and in warm climates, it will actually help cool your house!"Too bad I don't live in a straw hut in Afghanistan.
Because a lot of people are not far-sighted enough to look at the total cost of the water heater: purchase/installation PLUS operating costs over its lifetime. They'll just look at the initial cost, which will be higher than a standard tankless (I'm really speaking about gas tankless heaters, I don't know about this hybrid heater--that's new to me). Putting it under the Energy Star program will put it in people's faces that there's a financial benefit to it in the long run. Also, it will probably qualify the water heaters for some financial incentives--tax deductions or credits.
Dead on. Total bulls**t. I used to sell Plumbing & Heating years ago. Not qualifying that it is only *maybe* an improvement to electric heaters, right there, article is crap.Gas FTW. And of course, more insulation is always the way to go. Only difference between say, a 80 gal residential, and an 80 gal commercial is besides a bigger burner, a foot or two of insulation. Of course the huge form factor adds a ton of weight.
NSResponder, I think that we're unfortunately talking past each other on this. I am not arguing that CO2 is not a greenhouse gas. We are in violent agreement that H2O vapor is a greenhouse gas...the link I provided above lists CO2 responsible for 9-26% of the GHG effect, H2O vapor responsible for 66-85%, others sum to
You can get more efficiency than a resistor in a heat pump, and more efficiency still with heat recovery that collects "waste heat" from things like your AC unit. Debatable whether the complexity of the device pays off over the lifetime of the unit - I doubt it does with the cost of energy today - especially gas.
Cheap flash heaters do produce trickle flows... there's no free lunch. I looked at rolling my own flash heater in 1993, I could have done it, but (for what I consider an acceptable flow rate) it would have taken more amperage than the entire rest of my house when it ran, probably would have required a transformer upgrade on the electric pole.
nsresponderApr 6, 2008
I rather like the idea of using one tankless unit everywhere you want hot water (IE, one per bathroom, one in the kitchen), and not having to run two full sets of supply lines throughout the house. Also, if any of them fails, you'd still have hot water elsewhere in the house.-jcr
superal1394Apr 6, 2008
see: nuclear materials recyclingAlso note the new technologies to directly capture radiation into electricity, as well as the microbes that eat radiation.
atact88Apr 7, 2008
"Because the new device uses a heat exchanger, it will actually make your furnace work harder during the winter. But in the summer, and in warm climates, it will actually help cool your house!"Too bad I don't live in a straw hut in Afghanistan.
fedaykin311Apr 7, 2008
It's a Rinnai R85i<a class="user" href="http://www.foreverho****er.com/">http://www.foreverho****er.com/</a>
gazoo2001Apr 7, 2008
Because a lot of people are not far-sighted enough to look at the total cost of the water heater: purchase/installation PLUS operating costs over its lifetime. They'll just look at the initial cost, which will be higher than a standard tankless (I'm really speaking about gas tankless heaters, I don't know about this hybrid heater--that's new to me). Putting it under the Energy Star program will put it in people's faces that there's a financial benefit to it in the long run. Also, it will probably qualify the water heaters for some financial incentives--tax deductions or credits.
shotgunefxApr 7, 2008
Dead on. Total bulls**t. I used to sell Plumbing & Heating years ago. Not qualifying that it is only *maybe* an improvement to electric heaters, right there, article is crap.Gas FTW. And of course, more insulation is always the way to go. Only difference between say, a 80 gal residential, and an 80 gal commercial is besides a bigger burner, a foot or two of insulation. Of course the huge form factor adds a ton of weight.
gazoo2001Apr 9, 2008
NSResponder, I think that we're unfortunately talking past each other on this. I am not arguing that CO2 is not a greenhouse gas. We are in violent agreement that H2O vapor is a greenhouse gas...the link I provided above lists CO2 responsible for 9-26% of the GHG effect, H2O vapor responsible for 66-85%, others sum to
topherdApr 14, 2008
This will only subside prices for about 6 months then the companies will just raise prices again to match what they were making before.
joemerchantJan 12, 2009
Ya know, GE also sells the infrastructure bits (transformers, generators, etc...)
joemerchantJan 12, 2009
You can get more efficiency than a resistor in a heat pump, and more efficiency still with heat recovery that collects "waste heat" from things like your AC unit. Debatable whether the complexity of the device pays off over the lifetime of the unit - I doubt it does with the cost of energy today - especially gas.
joemerchantJan 12, 2009
Cheap flash heaters do produce trickle flows... there's no free lunch. I looked at rolling my own flash heater in 1993, I could have done it, but (for what I consider an acceptable flow rate) it would have taken more amperage than the entire rest of my house when it ran, probably would have required a transformer upgrade on the electric pole.
tansonsltdDec 24, 2010
I believe in zero wastage of energy & cost, when it comes to resources or heating & cooling equipments.
keyur1878Aug 31, 2011
I believe in zero wastage and minimum cos so I opted for http://infraredheatstore.com