Rinnai boiler controller [RE-wrenches]

[Bill Loesch]

Hi Brad,

You are very wise to want to provide combustion air from an unconditioned
space for any fuel burning appliance.

The majority of power vented water tankless water heaters do that, either
stock or through an accessory package that basically covers up the holes in
the case and then provides a collar to plumb in combustion air. The clever
folks will custom build a "box" for the natural draft machines and provide
the box with adequate combustion air from usually outside. Best of both
worlds, IMHO.

All tankless machines manufactured by the Big Five (that I am aware of) sold
to North America are modulating units. The majority are flow modulated
heaters. The "old" Bosch _Solar_ AquaStar, AQ 125BS and all its predecessors
(e.l.m. AquaStar heaters ending with the VP suffix) were temperature
modulated heaters. Through the wonders of marketing that old "preheat
capable" heater is now offered as the Bosch Aquastar 1600PS (the same
machine as AQ 125BS) I believe the marketing guys get promotions on the
amount of money they spend for literature and advertising and a new model
name or number requires more money, so more promotions.

In theory any machine that measured and responded to _inlet_ water
temperature would work as a solar backup. Unfortunately, the rub comes when
you only need a _little_ more heat. The Rinnai model you quoted has a
_minimum_ fire of 15,000 BTU/hour.

Hope that helps.

Bill Loesch
Solar 1 - Saint Louis Solar



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brad Bassett" <bbassett at hei.net>
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2008 10:29 PM
Subject: RE: Rinnai boiler controller [RE-wrenches]


>
> Mine is a V2532FFU from 2003. At the time it was the standard
> residential tankless from them.
>
> I would hesitate to install a natural draft unit in any house in a cool
> or cold climate unless there is some provision for ventilation in a
> separate room from the conditioned space of the house, because they will
> pull warm air out of the house and any ventilation system could
> potentially backdraft it.
>
> Also do any of the natural draft (no power required) units modulate so
> they can use preheated water from a solar system (everyones installs
> have solar hot water don't they)? Is the old Aquastar modulating unit
> for solar preheat still available? I thought they were discontinued.
>
> Brad
> AEE Solar
>
>
> Bill Loesch wrote:
> >
> > Hi Brad,
> >
> > Thanks for the update. Rinnai makes more than one model, can you,
> > please,
> > identify which flavor you have and the approximate vintage?
> >
>
>
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