Rinnai ES38-P Direct Vent Propane Wall Furnace

Starting a new thread from this one http://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/lowes-roofing-hvac-install.106199/


Does anyone have experience / own one of these.
http://www.rinnai.us/direct-vent-wall-furnace/product/es38_rhfe-1004fta#mce_temp_url#



IS this what the guy I had here the other day tell me he would recommend me to install. Said it is "bank approved", would have not problem with heat.
This is what is sales agreement says about job :

1. DESCRIPTION OF WORK AND MATERIALS (including make, model, or other identifying information): J. B SMITH WILL PROVIDE AND INSTALL


RINNAI NES38 DIRECT VENTER HEATER INSTALLED IN LIVING ROOM AREA, WITH NEW DIRECT VENT PIPING, HOOKUP NEW PROPANE GAS LINES,
SET NEW TANK,WHOLE HOUSE GAS LEAK TEST, ELECTRIC AT UNIT AND ALL MISC. PARTS.

HEATER INSTALLED $3240.00

I have two similar, but smaller, unites made by Empire and I really like them. One thing to check, though, is whether they will still operate without electricity (mine do). If electricity is just for the fan so they run at reduced efficiency without it that's fine, but if it's required for the controls you may be out of heat during a power failure.

i had a similiar unit, non vented NG and liked it. Is propane going to be cost effective??

I believe propane is the only gas choice I have around me.

LPG is often not cost effective when compared with regular old electricity. Also consider that a wall heater is like 150$ and has no chance of creating CO fumes.

Is there an electric wall heater capable of 38,000 btu which this propane heater says it does on max? Also I am looking for something in the "nice" category for when we sell the house.
I am open to options, but just don't have much resource $$..

Electric is kinda high in NYS..

We had an old DV NG unit in our old house. Worked fine in our bedroom....

This is the best part. You don't get one fat heater, you get one or two for each room. This allows you to zone heat and save costs by maintaining different temperatures for each room. The typical wall heater is about the size of a toaster and puts out 3800 watts which is 16 amps at 240 which is why each one gets its own 20 amp circuit and uses a regular 12/2 romex.

3800 watts is about 13000 btu/hour. Three of those heaters and you are done. No maintenance, no fuel, no exhaust, no corroded heat exchanger, etc. The wall heaters are built into the wall so all you see is a grate. Instead of a more expensive ducted central system, many homes are heated with these wall heaters. They are not unlike baseboard heat.

Electric is a lot more expensive than propane. In my area, even oil is more expensive than propane. And direct vent devices don't put CO on the room; you only have to worry about that with unvented heaters (not a good idea for a primary heat source).

If you're looking for the "nice" factor, you might consider a DV freestanding gas fireplace instead of the industrial looking wall heaters.

Like electriccottage said, electric in ny is very costly. I run a oil filled heater in my bedroom for about 8 hours a night and according to my electric reader thing, I pay $25 a month for that. Also how about resell value. Would one 38k btu propane heater sell faster than having 3 electric heaters there?
IDK, still debating.

I was looking at the fireplace looking units, but can't find one that is high in btu like this Rinnai unit. Unless I am not reading right.
This rennai unit says 38k btu max is more than the englander pdvc correct or around the same..

I have the rinnai es38 it's a great heater but I've also put 800 bucks in fuel through it this winter

You can settle the cost issue with:

http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/fuel_cost_comparison_calculator/

Looks like 14.5 cent/kWh elec at 100% eff and $3/gallon propane at 78% are the same cost per BTU. Check your local rates for both.

IMO, the PITA factor is sig higher for propane, unless you want a propane stove and have a lot of elec outages.

Will your floorplan allow heat distribution?...the comfort factor might be higher with 3 elec units around the house rather than a mongo propane unit in the middle of one end.

That could be a fatal mistake. Have you ever heard of a cracked heat exchanger? Things fail and you would be stupid to not monitor your living space with a CO detector to be able to react if that happens. Not a possibility with electric.

I'm with you on the unvented heaters being a bad idea. I don't even like to work in the shop with an unvented LP heater.

Is that your only heat source that you use?

Does anyone else have a different kind of propane heater to recommend?

Saw that myself with my brother who had a direct vent propane Rinnai (or something similar . . . I forget the exact make) . . . something malfunctioned and it ended up pumping CO into his home. Fortunately his now-ex-wife had insisted he have a CO detector which activated. The idiot even called me up to tell me he couldn't smell anything, but the CO detector was going off . . . at which point I told him CO in itself is odor-less . . . fortunately for him (not so great for his now ex-) he had no symptoms of CO poisoning and was able to simply turn off the device and get a technician out to check on the problem.

And for the record . . . on unvented heaters . . . in Maine if you have a daycare the Fire Marshals will not allow unvented heaters as they feel they are not a good idea. Not a big fan of them myself.

I like a gas heater, especially natural gas since it is usually so cheap to run. Know, understand, and prepare for the risks and you will be fine.

If the btus from gas are not quite a bit cheaper than the same btus from resistance electric then you would need some other very strong reason to not use electric.