<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">Hi, Reuben--<div><br></div><div>I take your point about electricity--our solution is to buy wind power, to make the house as efficient as we could, and install rooftop solar water heating. Better than gas, I believe, plus our gas company has never supported energy efficiency programs like the electrics have (albeit they have had their ups and downs).</div><div><br></div><div>I'm saving up for a water heater heat pump to provide domestic hot water and hydronic space heat. I think the smaller Daikin Altherma looks good, it has a COP of more than 4, and our current solar HW can be integrated into it.</div><div><br></div><div>Not for the faint of wallet, I know, last time I checked around five years ago it was going to cost about $18,000 and there are no tax credits or rebates. There may be others out on the market?</div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div><br></div><div>Mike</div><div><br></div><div><span style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">Mike O'Brien Photography</span><br><div apple-content-edited="true"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><a href="http://mikeoregon.zenfolio.com">mikeoregon.zenfolio.com</a></div><div><br></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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<br><div><div>On Jun 8, 2014, at 11:40 AM, Reuben Deumling <<a href="mailto:9watts@gmail.com">9watts@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div>Up here in the Pacific Northwest we have a dilemma. The sun only shines between mid-May and mid-October (when it comes to yielding any useful water heating photons). The heating season, in my experience, is from November - April, but it tapers off a bunch at both ends, especially once one insulated the heck out of a place. This leaves two shoulder seasons during which little sun and little wood heating are going on that could be directed into a water storage tank. <br>
<br>So my question: What would you recommend as a backup (third) water heating fuel? <br></div><b>Natural gas</b> has been my default, but the only thing I really like about it is that it is not electricity. Fracking, fugitive methane emissions, peak gas, climate change, etc. It's all awful. <br>
<br></div><div>I once thought I'd try to set up a DWH system that used <b>biogas</b>/cow farts, but when I learned that CH4 doesn't readily compress I put my LPG tanks back on Craigslist. <br></div><div><br></div>
To us <b>electricity </b>to heat anything, to me, is bordering on the sacrilegious. I am well aware of the simplicity and technical ease of setting up an electric backup DWH system, but energetically I have a really hard time using our highest quality energy to do something as simple as make H2O molecules hot. <br>
<br>But I'm open to any arguments for the above or something I've not thought of. <br><br>Thanks very much.<br></div>
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