2.19.2008

In Hot Water

Though we moved in over two years ago, our 70s house still sports much of its original decor. The second owners showed off a switch plate perfectly wallpapered to match the leafy pattern on the wall behind it. It really is amazing. And it's pretty tasteful. Both of our moms love it. That works for us, because we've had enough to do with our jobs, cleaning, and unpacking.

We did start on the home inspector's list. A Sears tech cleaned and inspected the furnace & the hot water heater and was about to give a clean bill of health, when he saw a rust patch lurking in the back, broaching the final remaining layer of the tank. The home inspector had missed that.

I bought a new hot water heater from Home Depot. I replaced a gas one with an electric one for better indoor air quality. That removes a potential fire hazard, too. I didn't know then that gas is the current environmental choice, even though gas isn't renewable, because power plants are a bigger problem. At least I bought one with a 12-year warranty. Ones with longer warranties, according to Consumer Reports, are much more energy-efficient than the models with shorter warranties, because they typically have larger heating elements, thicker insulation, and thicker or longer corrosion-fighting anodes. Yes, this one is much wider than the old one, and though I measured, it was a relief when it fit!

Our home energy audit report said that water heating is our second largest single energy use. One recommendation is to insulate approximately 4 feet of the hot and cold pipes as they exit the top of the tank to reduce the convective heat loss. I've been looking at types of insulation to use for this and when I looked at our pipes to see what size to get, I saw that they touch. Yes, the hot water pipe, which felt like it might burn me if I kept touching it, actually touches the icy-feeling cold water pipe! Very close to the top of the tank!! So I'll be getting insulation that fits between them...

We already have the hot water heater thermostats set at 120 degrees, which was the factory set temperature, and is often recommended by energy efficiency articles. We've never run out of hot water and it's definitely hot.

I wondered later if I should've chosen a tankless hot water heater, but from what I've read we probably would've had to increase the amps to the house to support it! I'm going to look into the AirTap Water Heater Add-On among other options on http://www.aceee.org/consumerguide/waterheating.htm, which would be a good site to check out if you need to pick out a new one.


Update: I wrapped Armaflex insulation tape around the hot water pipe, overlapping halfway for the first layer and then just a little bit for the second layer. water pipesI barely managed to get both layers between the two pipes. pipes touch

1 comment:

Unknown said...

We went through the water heater replacement process a few years ago. I was really intrigued by the tankless system, but the price was really high. We purchased ours from Home Depot, too. We have an aversion to all Sears products because we have had so many problems with them. The purchasing options seemed somewhat limited to me.

The water heater we bought has been very reliable. We have it set at a higher temperature than is recommended with children in the house because I like really hot water. The greatest waste of resources that may have been prevented with a tankless system is the amount of water that is wasted waiting to the water to get warm at the faucet.