02-06-12, 05:18 PM | #11 |
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It will work great for solar or any way that you have pre-heated water entering the unit. It will only heat as needed.
I have a 5 year old SETS tankless. It is not a very good unit. In the winter the really cold water causes it to constantly heat too much then not enough. In the summer it is great due to the higher incoming water temp. If I had a solar batch water heater or something else to preheat the water, it would work fine all year. Planning on making one soon. |
02-06-12, 11:19 PM | #12 | |
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Quote:
A 6.5 gallon/min should take care of a whole house. If you are figuring on low-flow shower heads, they usually put out water at 1.5 gpm, so you could run several showers at once... all day and all night, too. No problem. Each of the tankless units needs a certain water flow rate to work correctly... keep that in mind when you are planning on several tankless water heaters running at once. * * * Personally, I think that the units being built are all too big. I think that having several small units that put out a max of 1.5 g/m each would be better, with each water heater installed right at the point of use. As you will soon find out, tankless hot water is not instant hot water... and the distance to the water heater makes the wait and the waste greater. Whole-house water heaters are all so twentieth century. -AC_Hacker
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02-07-12, 07:01 AM | #13 |
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Be sure to let us know how it works out for you.
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02-07-12, 07:21 AM | #14 |
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I will certainly let you all know how it works. I do know about the delay, my parents have had a rinnai for the past 7 years. It takes a little longer to get hot water but it is no big deal. I would care about the wasted water except my house is plumbed for septic and they have the black water and gray water plumbed seperately so it will be really easy to collect all my gray water and re use it for other purposes. My house is also very small and with this water heater I can mount it directly outside the wet wall for the bathroom and the kitchen. upstairs bath will have a little delay but no biggie.
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02-07-12, 08:42 AM | #15 |
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Do you have hard water at your place? If so, you should invest in a quality water softener.
My water softener is not working correctly and this is allowing deposits to form on the water heating coils for the tankless. This reduces efficiency and deposits go downstream and clogs the faucet aerators. |
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