Almost all gas water heaters that get installed these days are the power vent style. I don’t know if it’s because you can just vent the pvc pipe out the side of the house, I think it might be an efficiency thing also. It does mean you’re venting more inside air out that pipe, but if it’s in the basement, that’s probably not heated air.
I have an electric water heater in the original part of my house, and a power vent gas one in the addition. The reason for the electric water heater was the house was built around 1910 and when we bought it there was no gas, the furnace was a coal boiler converted to oil. When we had the house piped for gas, we didn’t change out the water heater. I’ve replaced it I think twice, the one good thing they are super easy to replace. It’s always an emergency, so getting a contractor in to convert to gas doesn’t seem like the way to go. I will say that having an electric water heater complicates things if you want to install a whole house generator. And if you are using a portable generator during a power outage, it’s trivial to plug a gas water heater in along with the fridge and other essential stuff. Otherwise, you’re rationing the remaining hot (then warm, cool, cold) water in the tank. Years ago I lived in a house with point-of-use tankless gas water heaters. They were great. No 60 second lag waiting for hot water. No problem if multiple people wanted to take showers at the same time. I suspect your hard water will be a problem though. From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Steve Jones Sent: Sunday, November 29, 2020 12:34 AM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]> Subject: [AFMUG] Water heaters You guys all do different weird shit. Went to drain my gas heater tonite (may have put that maintenance off longer than intended) We are quarry country so we have super hard water. Needless to say tanks full of baked in sediment and when I cleared the valve I may have cracked the liner, about every ten seconds I'm getting a drip on the burner, and my pop off is dripping, probably some sediment. The water heater is the only thing I have that vents hot anymore and my chimney leaks in driving rain. Is rather just bash it in and put a dumbwaiter in the chase. I have the two fresh kids that I bet would have a blast riding that. Power vent gas looks to almost double the cost. Tankless is looking almost comparable in price for gas, so I'm curious if any of you guys run them without major water softener and filters. I'm planning on solar in the next 5 or 6 years when I redo my roof so electric would be the thing I go with on the water heater after the one I'm gonna have to put in now. I like gas water heaters because I know how to fix them, parts are cheap, same with my clothes dryers. But theyve priced themselves into me looking at my options. Tankless I dont know how to calculate gpm needs. But what led to this was taking the flow reducer out of my low flow shower head and running out of hot water in 20 minutes. I start my day by scalding myself for about a half hour cause I'm a filthy bastard and need to be cleansed of my sins. We have 2 bathrooms and a girl hitting her teens, so I assume we may be getting into a shower and bath coming on at the same time and the wife knowing what's good for her and washing dishes. She wont let me put a wood stove and still in the bathroom, so wood fired shower options are out. Are residential boilers a thing? All my walls had pocket doors so I have plenty of room for radiant walls, I dont know if boiler heat it even efficient though.
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