[RE-wrenches] off-grid propane tankless water heater advice

[Bill Loesch]

Rebekah and Fellow Wrenches,

None of the Big 5 _manufacturers_ of tankless water heaters are 
currently manufacturing natural draft tankless water heaters. Paloma 
stopped their production several years ago and the then, sole provider 
of natural draft machines-Bosch has earlier this year stopped production 
of all it's natural draft models.

Chances are you can still locate units in the system today but all of 
the Big 5 natural draft machines are today - out of production.

If by trustworthy you mean reliable, then you should not use hydro 
generated units in the same sentence as reliable or cost effective. 
There might be other manufacturers beyond the Big 5 (Bosch, Noritz, 
Paloma, Rinnai and Takagi) out there but you might want to talk to Ian 
W. about his success with a natural draft "off-brand". When you have the 
choice to use a standing pilot model, that is your most reliable and 
long term low cost/expense leader. If you are really serious about 
energy conservation you might follow the rest of world lead and use the 
included piezo igniter every time you wanted hot water and save even the 
pilot gas when you were not using hot water.

Credit myopic/marketing driven energy efficiency rules with part of this 
demise and an industry that fits in well in a capitalist society with 
the remainder.

Read Tom Lane's article
http://solarindustrymag.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.15632
in the current issue of Solar Industry Magazine regarding the current 
status of the solar thermal industry and his suggestions for alternatives.

Sabine and I, in the '80's switched an electric tank in an all electric 
condo daily for over eight years and never had to even replace the 
breaker. In a gas storage tank water heater, rotating the gas valve 
between pilot and on accomplishes almost the same effect of using the 
storage tank as a batch heater.

Best wishes,

-- 
Bill Loesch
Solar 1 - Saint Louis Solar
314 631 1094



On 9/3/2015 10:06 AM, Rebekah Hren wrote:
> Hi Wrenches,
>
> Any suggestions for trustworthy:
>
> -propane tankless water heater
> - draft-vented
> -battery (or hydro) ignition with no electrical hookups
>
> It seems to be a lot harder to find tankless water heaters which do 
> not have a 120VAC power supply these days. It's not a big power draw, 
> but it is a phantom load for off-grid and I'm not sure it's a great 
> idea to manually switch the tank power supply on/off several times day?
>
> Thanks!
> Rebekah Hren
>
>
> -- 
> Tel: 336.266.8800
> NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installation Professional™ 091209-85
> NC Licensed Electrical Contractor
>
>
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