I know, my topic sounds like some cheezy scam ad in the back of better homes and gardens....
I lost my on-demand propane water heater when we had a bad downdraft during sub-zero weather last week. It froze and then blew out the heat exchanger and left a nice pool of water in my house. I went to Lowes and grabbed a 50-gallon electric tank instaed of pissing around with the on-demand - it solved my downdraft problem and gives me STEADY hot water vs. fluctuating hot/cold, which is not nice for showering. I was shocked at the energyguide saying 4777 kWh/year avg. use. That's about what my 4 kW solar array produces in a year.
I did some research and found this: http://www.airgenerate.com/products/airtap.html
This thing mounts on top of your water tank and uses the refrigeration cycle to heat your water instead of resistance heating. You plug it into a 110 v outlet and switch off the breaker for the in-tank heaters. For us wood burners, this makes perfect sense! If you are heating with gas/electric/etc., might not be such a great deal since you're robbing your air of some of its heat (that you already paid for once). As a bonus, in the summer, it doubles as a small air conditioner/dehumidifier, so you're basically using the heat that your AC would normally throw outside to heat your water.
To save on electric, you all might want to look into this. It costs $699 (I found a site with free shipping) and then there's a $300 tax credit for '09 taxes.
No, I don't work for this place. I just think it's a great idea. I'm getting one, and planning to install a kill-a-watt meter on it to see what I'm actually using for hot water. I'd be more than happy to share my results when it happens.
I lost my on-demand propane water heater when we had a bad downdraft during sub-zero weather last week. It froze and then blew out the heat exchanger and left a nice pool of water in my house. I went to Lowes and grabbed a 50-gallon electric tank instaed of pissing around with the on-demand - it solved my downdraft problem and gives me STEADY hot water vs. fluctuating hot/cold, which is not nice for showering. I was shocked at the energyguide saying 4777 kWh/year avg. use. That's about what my 4 kW solar array produces in a year.
I did some research and found this: http://www.airgenerate.com/products/airtap.html
This thing mounts on top of your water tank and uses the refrigeration cycle to heat your water instead of resistance heating. You plug it into a 110 v outlet and switch off the breaker for the in-tank heaters. For us wood burners, this makes perfect sense! If you are heating with gas/electric/etc., might not be such a great deal since you're robbing your air of some of its heat (that you already paid for once). As a bonus, in the summer, it doubles as a small air conditioner/dehumidifier, so you're basically using the heat that your AC would normally throw outside to heat your water.
To save on electric, you all might want to look into this. It costs $699 (I found a site with free shipping) and then there's a $300 tax credit for '09 taxes.
No, I don't work for this place. I just think it's a great idea. I'm getting one, and planning to install a kill-a-watt meter on it to see what I'm actually using for hot water. I'd be more than happy to share my results when it happens.