[Greenbuilding] Fwd: Tankless water heater

UNSCHOOLER@LREC.ORG unschooler at lrec.org
Mon May 6 17:39:18 CDT 2013



Anyone used one of these Eternal water heaters yet?  The one thing that intrigues me most about them is their claim about reducing sediment (due to bringing in fresh water from the bottom).  We have so much lime in our water....   You lose a wee bit of efficiency (94%) because of the 6 gallon storage tank (I assume), but it's still quite good re: efficiency.  

Leslie Moyer
unschooler at lrec.org



On Mar 18, 2010, at 11:51 AM, Rob Dickinson wrote:

> Hi Tom,
> 
> Yes, tankless hot water heaters generally all have this activation flow rate
> consideration in which you need to have a certain amount of flow in otder to
> activate the on-demand heating system.  This flow rates varies from unit to
> unit, but not by much.  They generally range from 0.5 gpm to 0.8gpm.
> 
> Given that, with most tankless units, you can't have a trickle of hot water,
> as you say.  I had a Paloma Waiwela tankless unit, and it had the same
> issue. I used to like to have a trickle of hot water when I was cleaning
> dishes to help cut grease and such, but with my tankless I just had to get
> over that.  In the end, I just started using my dishwasher more, and
> probably am saving more water and energy over the way I used to wash dishes.
> 
> The only on-demand unit that doesn't have this activation flow rate issue is
> the hybrid tank/tankless unit called the Eternal by Grand Hall.  It is an
> on-demand unit in that it can heat large quantities of water in real-time,
> but it also stores about 6 gallons of water in these tubular components
> wrapped around the heating components.  It's hard for me to describe, but
> their website gives a good description with some pictures. See:
> http://eternalwaterheater.com/
> 
> The Eternal unit seems to be a fantastic product.  I spoke to a plumber who
> does tons of tankless units, and he really loves these things.
> 
> I did a LOT of looking into them for a house I am remodeling now, and came
> away very impressed and wanting to put one in.   In the end, though, we may
> go "all electric" for the house I am talking about, and that would preclude
> installing the natural-gas based Eternal.  One of my bigger regrets (if you
> want to call them that) about going all electric is not getting to try out
> the Eternal hot water heater.
> 
> Rob
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 9:31 AM, <tom at honeychrome.com> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> I put in a Takagi Jr. in our place in upstate NY a few years ago.  While
>> a
>> gas heater, it does require electric power, primarily (as I understand
>> it)
>> to run an anti-freeze element.  Because of the location of our heater the
>> anti-freeze  element  seemed like a good idea.  Our place only has one
>> bathroom, so we've never come up against the limits of the heater.  The
>> only
>> major downside we've found is that there needs to be a flow over a
>> certain
>> rate to turn the heater on, so all temperature regulation has to come
>> from
>> turning up/down the cold water- in other words, you can't have a
>> 'trickle'
>> of hot water.






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