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<DIV>In our area of so cal, gas water heaters with SWH last as long as fifteen
years no problem, and 20+ years is not uncommon - w/o anode rode redo. But
the ODWHs with which I am familiar usually need de-liming (service call)
about every five years. I do not have much data with ODWH with solar
back-up, yet. The larger the family in both cases, the faster the
failure.</DIV>
<DIV>ODWH manus seem to be claiming that the savings of standby heat loss is 15%
minimum, but if your heat loss is from standing solar heated water (which
entered the tank when somebody last used the hot water) and you have set
the outlep temp of the solar 15% higher than that of the old
fashioned water heater, your heat loss is from solar heated
water.</DIV>
<DIV>The irony about _endless_ hot water is this - most of the people who have
installed an instantaneous heater that is unassisted by solar will actually have
higher gas bills, specially if there are any teenagers in the house.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 size=3 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="12">Patrick A.
Redgate</FONT><FONT lang=0 color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR><B><I>AMECO Solar, Inc.<BR>Serving Solar California<BR>Since
1974<BR>7623 Somerset, Blvd.<BR>Paramount, CA
90723<BR>562-633-4400<BR></B></I><A href="http://www.solarexpert.com/">www.solarexpert.com</A><U><BR><A href="http://www.amecosolar.com/">www.amecosolar.com</A><BR></U></FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 9/17/2010 9:36:59 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
toddcory@finestplanet.com writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 10px; MARGIN-LEFT: 10px"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial><FONT size=4 face=arial>"<SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: monospace">repairable unit - you
don't have to trash it every seven years (reported<BR>national
average)"<BR><BR>My tank is 20 years old now. I change the anode every 3
years.<BR><BR>Todd<BR></SPAN><BR><BR></FONT><BR><BR><BR>Sent from Finest
Planet
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