Having built the DIY hot water heater hack I wish to report a resounding success. I will offer up the findings to date. Its been about 45 days in operation and the parents are quite pleased albeit not quite used to the lower 130 Deg. F temp. compared to the previous propane powered HWT of 180 Deg. F.
To compare some of the operational cost of water heating options. A quick look at the energy guide for the HWTs. A electric water heater is rated a 4880 Kwh/year with $0.18/kwh is $878.00 per year. A propane powered HWT will use 1052 ltr (278 us gal) @ $1.20/ltr is $1262.00 per year.
Now for the DIY Hot water heater hack we are seeing 106 Kwh/month (Kill-O-Watt Meter). That works out to 1272Kwh/year and ONLY $228.00/year AWESOME!!!
Ron342 Wrote:Why can't I just watch sports on Saturday like normal guys??
Now Knowing these costs,Who can afford to just watch sports??
The hack is with a 5000Btu window shaker. The heat-exchanger in the tank is working extremely well. I had copied Hv2T s idea. "the corkscrew condenser"
The BBQ gas refrigerant has offered up another advantage of lower power consumption. The 5000Btu window shaker uses about 500 watts with R22 and the R290 is running with 380 watts
Randen