12-26-11, 11:01 AM | #11 |
Supreme EcoRenovator
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 4,004
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Here's what I'm using:
Small, simple...
Pretty much what Piwoslaw was describing... -AC_Hacker
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I'm not an HVAC technician. In fact, I'm barely even a hacker... |
12-26-11, 05:11 PM | #12 |
Master EcoRenovator
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Western Wisconsin.
Posts: 913
Thanks: 127
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Amazon.com: Hamilton Beach 40898 Cool-Touch Cordless 8 Cup Electric Kettle: Kitchen & Dining
Is what I use to boil water, it takes 50 watt hours to boil 4 cups of water and with it's toaster like switch it turns off as soon as it's boiling, I really like it because the whole inside is stainless steel instead of having your water boiling inside of plastic or aluminum. What is most likely happening with your current hot water device is lime scale build up, if you can boil vinegar in it, that will do wonders to clean out the scale, then it would be worth putting a kill-a-watt meter on it and find out how much energy it really does use. Last edited by Ryland; 12-26-11 at 05:14 PM.. |
01-08-12, 12:24 PM | #13 |
Apprentice EcoRenovator
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Driftless Region, North America, Earth, Solar System, Orion Arm, Milky Way Galaxy,Virgo Supercluster
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I've been thinking about using a solar pre-heater system as an instant hot water heater. Even a small 5 gallon tank under the sink with a small drain back panel could really compliment an electric tankless heater and eliminate the "cold slug" since the water in the heat exchanger is ready to go. It could be expanded to showers or any DHW application. IDK what the effect would be on performance if there wasnt sun for a couple days tho... :/
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01-08-12, 12:40 PM | #14 |
Less usage=Cheaper bills
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posts: 940
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I put more thought into the tankless water heater 'slug of cold water, then warm that gets cold, then finally hot' water issue. I'm thinking that those water circulation systems that are designed to save water by cycling it around so the water doesn't get cold might be the answer. Just don't use them constantly, if they were connected to a flow switch or simply a manual button to activate the system for 30 seconds or so would more than do the trick. If the piping was PEX or probably anything non-metal the losses of heat wouldn't be so bad and the issue of using dumping additional heated water would be reduced. It would require either some additional plumbing to add the return or to go PEX with it if this wasn't part of a new house design.
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