I have a natural gas water heater in the garage. I'm concerned about its efficiency. The reason is that the cold and hot water pipes go straight up from the top of the water heater. There are no curves whatsoever. They look like 2 rods going straight up into the ceiling. Heat rises and I'm concerned lots of it is being lost through the pipes. I saw on a web site specifically talking about water heaters something that says put an inverted u on the cold and hot lines or put in ball valves. This will prevent the heat from being lost. Now, here's what I thought about doing. Take a short piece of pipe and screw it into the top of the heater. Put a 90 degree elbow and another short piece of pipe. Put another 90 degree elbow onto this and a 3rd short piece of pipe. Another elbo and a 4th piece, then one more elbow and a short piece for the flex hose to connect to. In other words: 5 pieces of short pipe connected by 4 90 degree elbows, the bottom connecting to the heater, the top connecting to a copper flex hose. Speaking of the hose, it is just long enough to reach the heater as it is currently. Would this work as a heat trap? I would imagine in theory, it should since the heat is being blocked by a few 90 degree turns. Also, I have plans at some point to insolate the hot water lines in the house, which I know will improve efficiency. One more question concerning raising the heater. Could cinder blocks be used as a deck to raise the heater to 18 inches above the ground? I know you can buy stands for this, but thought it would be fun to build one that will accommodate this heater, plus heaters in the future. I initially thought of making the stand out of wood, but a friend suggested concrete as the best material, since it don't burn. One more thing, I know to raise the heater, water lines and vents need to be cut for this to work. Also, there's a possibility the gas line will have to be adjusted. Fortunately, it looks like they used the flexible stuff for the gas line, so that may not be an issue. Just have to see. Thanks for any info.
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