Punte domestiche quotidiane di rinnovamento

As mentioned in Part 1, we have decided to investigate purchasing and having installed a tankless water heater. However, if we do it must meet four conditions:

• Natural gas as the energy source
• Sufficiently sized to meet our hot water needs
• Product manufactured by and installed by reputable companies to reduce the risk of unsatisfactory product performance and/or installation, and
• Financial payback in 5 years or less……preferably under 4 years.

In another article we mentioned that we has Sears Home Comfort come over to our home to provide an estimate on another energy conservation device we learned about from the energy audit report we received as a result of our participation in the ecoENERGY Retrofit program, the drain water heat recovery (DWHR) device. During the  assessment, it was concluded by ourselves and company representative that the DWHR device would not be appropriate for us.

However, we asked the gentleman about a tankless water heater in almost the same breath that he asked us if we had considered it. So, back down to the basement we went.

The first thing the estimator from Sears Home Comfort, let’s call him Bob, did was to locate the location of our current hot water tank, the water line containing the fresh water coming into our home and the natural gas line feed. Here is a picture of our current hot water tank:

Now, the line through with the fresh water enters our home can be seen in the above picture on the floor between the furnace on the left and the hot water tank on the right.

Where is the natural gas line? Well, it is about 26 feet away on the east wall. And, where are the bathrooms, laundry room and kitchen in the house? They are within a 12 foot radius of the current hot water tank location. So, I have a concern. Within the 26 foot distance between the main cold water line and the natural gas on the outside of the east wall of our home would the tankless water heater go? Don’t know…..at least not yet.

Well, Bob, recommended that the best place for a natural gas type of tankless water heater to be placed would be on an outside wall close to the natural gas valve. So, he indicated that this would be the perfect place for the unit, in our basement work room (every home renovator has to have one of those, right? ).

This location would allow for the direct venting to the outside needed by these devices. And, since we had a water line within 6 feet or so of that location as well as unfinished ceiling or drop ceiling tiles between the main water line and this location it would be relatively easy to connect the tankless hot water device to the water line and back to the main hot water feeder line to all the bathrooms, the laundry room (not that we use any hot water in our laundry except for sometimes ‘whites’) and kitchen.

So, what unit did Bob recommend, why and what was the quote? Continue with the next article in this series to find out by simply selecting this link to Part 3.