[Greenbuilding] Opinions on electric tankless HW heaters?

[Nick Pyner]

I don't think your clients' (current) lifestyle has any bearing on the
philosophy. You either design green or you don't. It may well be that, with
clients like this, not designing green is the best option and you are
risking your reputation if you do. Further, if your clients have any green
building pretentions at all, they will know that a change in lifestyle is
the most obvious way to satisfy them. This may involve no more than having
their i-Phones reminding them to turn the heater off.

There is no way a tankless electric can be considered green.

If you live in an area with coal fired generators and variable tariff,
re-read the above line about five times.

Much the same applies to electric storage, but to a lesser degree. At least
you might have an option to use off-peak rates.

Small use and second homes was indeed the most typical use of tankless
heaters well back in the 20th century, but we are now well into the 21st.

You do not need to keep electric-heated stored water hot all the time.
Timers with "day omit" have been around for as long as your grandmother can
remember, and there are plenty of sophisticated programmable timers around.
There are probably remote control devices too. I bet you can do it over the
internet or, if you can't, you will be able to next week. It has to be
simpler than having the fridge email the supermarket, and they are doing
that already.

Not that I'm advocating electric storage. I submit that gas instant is a
greener proposition and better practice but, at the risk of citing the
bleeding obvious, solar may be better practice still....



Nick Pyner

Dee Why   NSW

-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org]On Behalf Of Matt
Dirksen
Sent: Thursday, 21 April 2011 4:37 AM
To: Green Building
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Opinions on electric tankless HW heaters?


I realize I did not clarify when I originally asked this question; that the
clients in particular will not be living at the home full time. Between a
second home in another state, and rigorous travel schedules, there is
nothing "typical" about their potential use. The could quite possibly reside
there with an additional family member or two at the same time, but likely
in small doses.

To me; proper green design is about balancing various "best practiced"
solutions. I guess the real question is: does the infrequent usage of an
electric on-demand ever outweigh the need to keep water hot all the time?
These are not clients who would remember to turn down the water heater,
either. There may not be a "right" answer here. I certainly won't recommend
this solution if it doesn't mutually benefit the clients and the planet.

Thanks,

Matt

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