We have a typical older-farmhouse setup with the water heater on the enclosed back porch/laundry room–6′ x 6′ space with a door to the kitchen and one to the deck. The water heater is standing there in the corner taking up a 2 x 2 footprint. If I could get it out of there I could put in a tall storage cabinet and/or un-stack the laundry machines and install uppers. We need the storage and I’m tired of looking at the thing. Three options that come to mind:
1–move the heater into the attic.
2–buy a wall-mounted unit like a Rinnai, Takagi, or Baxi and mount it on the laundry room wall (preferably into a stud bay)
3–buy a wall-mounted unit or something else that could go in the crawl space (42″ headroom down there).
The attic seems easy–run the plumbing up there, get an appropriate rupture pan, and move it. This would increase hot water draw time at all the fixtures, but I could find space for it either above the bathroom or the kitchen. There’s about 72″ of headroom up there, max, and the unit is about 58″ tall, so I think this would work, be legal, etc.
The wall mounted units are nice and I’ve put them in a number of houses. The Baxi has a separate heating circuit that I could use to heat water for a couple of bedroom radiators–that would allow removing the electric heaters that are there.
Not sure what would fit in the crawl space. I need to do some homework and find out if there’s anything that would fit in a crawl.
Any thoughts appreciated.
Replies
Had attic water heater in my last house. Replacing it wasn't fun but other than that it didn't seem to matter.
I'd recommend having the drip pan drain to somewhere you walk by daily, so when it fails you know it immediately.
My .02cents worth...
"Decisions are emotional, logic enters during the justification stage."
I've wanted to replace my water heater for years (27 years, to be exact). It takes up too much space in a cramped utility room. But a tankless electric wouldn't work without a larger service, and I can't legally vent a tankless gas unit from the current location, due to the proximity of windows. So I'm stuck.
Gonna be forced to replace it pretty soon, though, I'm guessing.
You should at least check out the Baxi Luna heaters. They are wall mounted (interior) and I believe you can get one with vertical venting so you can go out the roof. It's been a while since I checked the specs... might be wrong.
Vertical's no better than horizontal -- This is on the bottom floor of a two-story home. If I went straight up I'd have to drill a hole in the kitchen counter. There is a flue chase for the furnaces, but it's on the opposite corner of the room, and running pipes across the room to the chase would probably cause some sort of code violation (and get my wife mad).
In Friday Harbor, isn't not natural gas. And freezing isn't much of a concern.
If electric, than it can move anywhere that will hold 500 pounds. If easy, I'd sister the two joists it falls on in the attic. Make the leak pan drain to an obvious location, as noted before.
Consider replacing now with a long-life (two anodes instead of one) now. Because 1) replacement later will be a pain and 2) you can dick around with the install for a few days and still have hot water the whole time.
If propane, the deciding factor will be running the flue pipe. Look at the limitations in the installation manual and/or talk to the building inspector.
If you have (or can get) a larger electrical service, you could do a tankless. Although a tankless to at least a small tank (maybe in the attic) gives the best of both worlds - good temp control, long showers, and hot water at low flow.
We put in an electric tankless. It takes 4 60amp circuits. When the water heater goes on, it's like an old Mickey Rooney death house movie. The lights dim momentarily like they are testing the chair for Killer Mears. Other than that, it's great. Lotsa hot water. Our water supply is a well, and the winter water temp is about 45 degrees F coming into the house. Wouldn't trade it for anything. We also have a heat pump, electric range & a ton of other electric apliances. Our bill runs about $120 per month. Considering that we have little cost for LPG to supplement the heat pump, that's a great utility bill. We live in Nawth Jawja, honeychile. Not exactly Alaska, I realize. My point is that the tankless electric works great, and is cheaper than the previous 50 gal tanked electric or natural gas we had.
DonThe GlassMasterworks - If it scratches, I etch it!
OK, so we have a few votes for the attic, none for the crawl space, maybe one for a tankless. The existing tank unit is propane and it's easy enough for me to extend that line anywhere and to run the vent out of the roof. I suppose my main question was about the wisdom of the attic location--it's not heated and 4 months of the year will be a steady 35-40 degrees. There is definitely some loss from a tank and at this point that's been into the laundry room, which is not heated but is within the insulated walls of the building. Can anyone hazard a guess as to the added cost of standby in a cold space?
I never considered electric. I have 200A at the panel and nothing but lights and plugs to run (there are a few electric wall heaters but they're not used and I'll be ditching them as I remodel). The cost of electric hot water would be my question. Obviously propane is expensive here and electric seems relatively cheap, maybe 6 cents per kwh IIRC.
Last question might be about locating a tankless in the attic. I've put in 2 Takagi and 1 Rinnai (nifty outdoor stud-bay install) and really never heard from the owners about them (that's good, really). In that scenario, standby loss is not an issue and I could even leave the existing in place while I play around with getting the new one in.
Mostly I just want that tank outta the way. If I achieve that I can put a small washer/dryer setup side by side with a counter over them, uppers above, and a 16" tall cabinet next to them. Think of all the stuff... my wife... could put in there.
David: We likewise have 200 amp svc. Unit is by Seisco, out of Houston ,TX. They have a web site. Their heaters come in three sizes, and they all don't use 4X60 amp ckts. We just went whole hog, not wanting to ever wish we had a bigger unit; cost us over $400. We had ZERO space for a tank, so it was a no-brainer when we considered the tankless. You can put it anywhere code will let you take a 60 amp ckt. Ours just happens to be about 3 ft from the service panel, so our line losses are minimum. Eats up a spot on the wall about 18" square by 6 " deep. As some overkill, I put cementatious board behind the heater as fire protection. There were no requirements for any protection other than the wallboard it hangs on.
DonThe GlassMasterworks - If it scratches, I etch it!
The existing unit is electric. I'd love to have NG (the existing furnaces are NG), but there's no way to rig the flues.
This is Minnesota, where you'd be a fool to put a water heater in the attic or garage.
So you have a 6'x6' enclosed porch on the house. Is there room for a 2'x2' bump out, maybe in a corner where the porch meets the house?
-- J.S.
There might be. You're thinking small attached shed for the water heater? It might happen.... the flue would have to come thru the top of the shed and then go up thru the eave. A little goofy but maybe better than lugging it up in the attic.
Goofy? Think of it as adding an interesting architectural detail to the footprint of the building.... ;-)
-- J.S.