What are my (Hot) Water Heater options?
Hi folks,
My 15-year-old propane water heater seems to be losing it’s oomph. It’s been running out of hot water more quickly in the last few months, and I’m thinking it may be time to replace or change to a different system altogether.
My current water heater is a 40-gal uninsulated propane unit, in an unheated basement in a cold climate. It’s just me living here. I know I should have been doing maintainance on it over the years, but I’ve never touched it, and now I’m afraid to touch it for fear of breaking it if I do.
I’ve been pondering what to replace it with when it finally does give up the ghost. I use propane for hot water and cooktop. Will continue to have propane for the cooktop even if I go with some other BTU input for the DHW. I have an oil-fired weil/mclean boiler for baseboard heat that used to have a tankless coil in it that had been disconnected when I bought it used 15 years ago. So I could run an indirect boiler fired tank off of that instead, or I could go with a propane-fired tankless heater. Or I could just replace in kind. Electric in NY state is prohibitively expensive.
Problem I’m finding with both indirect-fired oil, and tankless is the prohibitive up-front cost. It seems like it would take a long time to recoup the costs.
What would you do?
Replies
You could go with a tank & use that unused coil on the boiler if it's domestic rated, but it would not be efficient in the warmer months.
A propane fired tankless is ideal in your situation as a single occupant is what tankless work best on.
You probably have a broken or split dip tube that is sucking cold in the outlet prematurely.
If it was me & my family of 4----- I would replace the tank WH when it fails with another tank, I would also hook it up to the coil on the boiler on a controlled circ system that was only on when the boiler is on.
“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” —Albert Einstein
Is replacing the dip tube an option?I'm wondering if I should just try and nurse this old unit along a little further. I've never flushed it, never changed the anode rod (is there an anode rod on a propane fired heater?). I'm a little afraid of causing more trouble than I fix...I'm not afraid of plumbing per se. I plumbed my whole heating and DHW system myself. Steve
Edited 3/15/2008 5:15 pm by mmoogie
Dip tubes are replaceable.
They are located on the inlet (cold) side of the tank just under the nipple.
Make sure you can find a replacement before you try to remove the old one.
“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” —Albert Einstein
Considering that there is no water coming out of the two copper pipes on the coil, I would think that it is still good.
But you have a bigger potential problem. The pressure relief valve on the boiler has been weeping. You need to have it replaced ASAP.
If the coil in the boiler is still functional, I'd use that with a SuperStor or other well-insulated indirect tank (don't need much volume for just 1 person occupancy).
Oil is cheaper than propane in most places, has quicker recovery time, and it exercises your oil burner in the summer when it would otherwise be collecting dust and spider webs.
Solar & Super-Insulated Healthy Homes
Is there any way to verify if my coil is usable? See attached photos. I started thinking about this a few years back and the indirect tank was where I was leaning then. It bothers me to know I'm paying to keep a 40-gallon pot of water hot all day, when I use it for 10 minutes a day. But the indirect tanks were upward of 800 dollars then, and my current setup was functioning fine. I don't know what it costs for a 40-gallon propane tank heater now, but I think this one was about 200 dollars 15 years ago.I'm just one person with one bathroom now. My wife is living in another state right now. Down the road I will someday finish the second floor of this place and add another bathroom. It may be a rental down the road, or may just be a seasonal house for us if we relocate to Minneapolis for the long haul. So there are competing visions of what the future holds in terms of demand.Steve
Is there any way to verify if my coil is usable?
You might try pressure testing it.
I don't know what it costs for a 40-gallon propane tank heater now, but I think this one was about 200 dollars 15 years ago.
You can bet it's a few bucks more today. But you need to add on the annual operating cost to see what you're really paying.
Riversong HouseWright
Design * * Build * * Renovate * * ConsultSolar & Super-Insulated Healthy Homes
There is a lot of information here. We are building new and are planning to use solar as well.
http://www.radiantdesigninstitute.com/
If you were my customer, I would recommend that you consider a whole new package. That boiler is old and inefficient. When the coil was disconnected the control was probably not changed or converted, so the boiler maintains 170 degree water ALL the time. It still thinks there is a need for DHW.
I like what the new gas boilers like Baxi and Buderus are capable of. Baxi has one that will do space heating and tankless DHW one package.
Mike,Gas is not an option here--only propane or oil.You are right about the controls. It does keep the water hot all the time. I never bothered to change them out. I just shut the boiler down once the weather is warm enough. Is the inefficiency only in the standby loss? Or is it also going to be less efficient heating the water to temp even when needed? When I have it serviced, they tune it and usually tell me that the efficiency is around 85-87% based on some probe they stick into the flue.Steve
These boilers are LP, concert to Natural Gas if it ever comes to you.
The efficiency they are checking is only the "running efficiency" basicly it takes two numbers (stack temp and CO2) to come up with it. Go to the link below and read.
http://www.energykinetics.com/afue.html
Bumping this up because here it is 15 months later and the water heater finally bought the farm. Just wanted to solicit any new opinions on the situation. I'm going out to price my options today.
Leaning towards and indirect storage tank at the moment, maybe fed off the tankless coil in the oiler, or maybe not.
Steve