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Old 11-11-11, 10:20 AM   #65
bennelson
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: SE Wisconsin
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This is going to be a preheater system.

I already have a 40 gallon traditional natural gas water heater.

In Wisconsin winters, there is often many days in a now with no direct sunlight. Some sort of backup is needed no matter what.

I already have the water heater and it's in good condition, so I don't see any reason to change that. The only possibility I could see is to change that out for an "on-demand" heater. However, we have VERY hard water at my house (yes, we have a water softener....) and my understanding of how on-demand heaters work involves the fact that they have many small openings inside to exchange the heat into the water. That does NOT sound like a good combination with my extra-hard water.

I also do understand that natural gas water heaters have higher "stand-by" losses than electrics do, but again, I already have the heater, it's in good condition, and works well.

Also, even if I removed the water heater, I wouldn't be able to put the solar tank in its place. The water heater is 18" in diameter, and the solar tank is 24". The water heater is right between the wall and the furnace (which is NOT moveable). There wouldn't be enough room there for the solar tank anyways.

The solar tank is 60 gallons, and the solar collector is 4'x10' - 40 sqft. So it's 1.5 gallons of solar storage per square foot of collector, about right from what I have heard of for my area.
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