Electric or Indirect (oil) water heater?

[jackiec]

Purchased a Quad Santa Fe insert 4 years ago. We love it. Heats 1100ft ranch nicely. Still use oil to heat finished basement and for hot water. Indirect water heater is about to fail. Despise using oil in the summer months and was thinking of getting an electric hot water heater instead. It would enable us to shut off oil burner from April to November. Electricity is expensive and going up....Are we crazy to be thinking of going to electric for hot water? Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[xSpecBx]

Have you looked into the electric tankless hot water heaters?

I have no experience with them (I have an indirect as well), but depending on your hot water usage it may make more sense then having a hot water tank.

 

[2011 GT/CS]

They also have the newer high efficiency electric ones that are like a heat pump on a water heater.. I don't have one but they do seem interesting... Just a thought.

 

[xSpecBx]

Big part is your usage. A tank makes sense if your hot water demands are high. If they'd not thwn some of the tankless options make some sense

 

[Jdmurphy]

Last season I switched to pellets to heat the entire house. We were left with an oil boiler and indirect water heater just to make hot water. I installed a GE Geospring heat pump hot water heater a few months ago and love it. Our electric rates (a municipal electric company in CT) are very favorable and we didn't have gas as an option. So far the Geospring has kept up with the demand of 2 adults, 3 young kids, dishwasher and a fair amount of laundry. I need to find a way to accurately measure the electric consumption but the utility bill hasn't jumped at all. I know for a fact that I'm not spending over $1,000 annually to fire up the oil burner just to make hot water.

The list price for the unit is $1,200. GE runs a sale a few times a year. Add in utility rebates and I had $299 out of pocket. An easy decision for me.

I kept all of the oil equipment in-line and can just turn a few valves to switch back as needed.

 

[iron stove]

My Plumber-Heating guy, advises AGAINST shutting off a hot water boiler for extended times. You can get condensation ( RUST), pumps and valves can also get issues from lack of use.

 

[Jdmurphy]

Good advice. I do run the boiler a few times during heating season to confirm operation. I should do the same now for hot water heater.

 

[velvetfoot]

I would go with electric over oil indirect year round.

 

[MarkF48]

When my oil fired water heater failed I went with an electric replacement. I wanted a water heater that would outlast me and not fail from a rusted tank. After some research I ended up buying a Rheem Marathon water heater which has a plastic tank that is "guaranteed not to leak as long as I own my home" and no anode rod to replace. Price when I bought it was around $800 and I did the install so saved a bit of change there. It's just myself and my wife and there was a modest increase in the electric bill after the install, but it doesn't need annual maintenance like the oil burner did. It is well insulated. I looked at few water heaters that had electronic controls (not heat pumps) and of reviews I read of control board failures made me a bit skeptical of going with one of those, so I went with something I could install and pretty much forget it was there..
Some utilities were offering rebates to install these at one time.
http://www.marathonheaters.com/consumers.html

 

[DneprDave]

Everyone around here has electric or gas hot water heaters. It was this forum made me aware that oil fired hot water heaters even existed for single family homes.

Dave

 

[fmsm]

Last season I switched to pellets to heat the entire house. We were left with an oil boiler and indirect water heater just to make hot water. I installed a GE Geospring heat pump hot water heater a few months ago and love it. Our electric rates (a municipal electric company in CT) are very favorable and we didn't have gas as an option. So far the Geospring has kept up with the demand of 2 adults, 3 young kids, dishwasher and a fair amount of laundry. I need to find a way to accurately measure the electric consumption but the utility bill hasn't jumped at all. I know for a fact that I'm not spending over $1,000 annually to fire up the oil burner just to make hot water.

The list price for the unit is $1,200. GE runs a sale a few times a year. Add in utility rebates and I had $299 out of pocket. An easy decision for me.

I kept all of the oil equipment in-line and can just turn a few valves to switch back as needed.

You can't go wrong with this set up. Big rebates are available.

 

[Jdmurphy]

The Geospring comes with a 10 warranty on parts. For $99 Lowes extends the labor to 10 years. I figure I'm covered with this "new" technology.

 

[Tonyray]

In February this past winter, I got 100 gallons of oil strictly for DHW.
It is now going on October and I had 100 gallons delivered last week.
this will last us till prob March...
No way would I go with Electric Hot water tank and the Electric bill that follows.

 

[mralias]

Don't know who your electric company is but a 37% increase on National Grid customers has been approved. I'm sure others will follow suit. Might be a consideration.

 

[Arti]

You are already set up for oil, maybe an oil fired water heater would work for you. Bock makes a fairly efficient one for residential use, sure there are other brands also.

 

[moey]

The efficiency of a indirect has everything to do with the boiler its attached to. A modern properly sized boiler will make hot water cheaper then a electric resistant heater. But throw in the fact that most folks have a oversize boiler and its 15 years old a electric hot water heater wins in most cases.

Don't get a oil fired hot water heater. They are bad news stack loss and maintenance headaches.

You may take a look at the heat pump hot water heaters as a alternative.

 

[moey]

In February this past winter, I got 100 gallons of oil strictly for DHW.
It is now going on October and I had 100 gallons delivered last week.
this will last us till prob March...
No way would I go with Electric Hot water tank and the Electric bill that follows.

Getting 200 gallons of oil a year may be more of a operating cost of a electric hot water tank. We have a family of 4 and our electric bill is in the $30-$40 a month range for hot water at .15 kw/hr. Its 80 gallons so I don't have to worry about recovery.

 

[moey]

My Plumber-Heating guy, advises AGAINST shutting off a hot water boiler for extended times. You can get condensation ( RUST), pumps and valves can also get issues from lack of use.

Sounds like your heating company wants more coin from you... Boilers are made to be shut down the manuals even describe how to go about it in most cases.

 

[altarr]

When I first switched to pellets, I kept using the oil indirect hotwater...after the first year and a lot more money spent on oil, I got an 80 gallon electric. To be honest, I havent even really noticed much of a difference in the electric bill. The boiler just sits there now, waiting for the day the pellet stove breaks. Hasnt been used since we replaced the englander with the harman....;-)

 

[jackiec]

Thanks for the great ideas!! Need to address upping to 200 amps before I can even begin to think about electric water heaters and ductless heat pumps etc... but I think its possible to be oil free someday.

 

[NHcpa]

I have had the Bock oil fired since '96 and have saved plenty over the 60 gal elec heater I replaced. I had the extra flue so it made sense. Because it has an oil burner gun, I have it serviced and that's an additional annual cost.

 

[capecod]

Would a Nyletherm use the same amount of electricity as a geotherm? I,too, am tired of paying over $1000 per year to heat up my hot water while the pellet stove heats the house!

 

[Tonyray]

Getting 200 gallons of oil a year may be more of a operating cost of a electric hot water tank. We have a family of 4 and our electric bill is in the $30-$40 a month range for hot water at .15 kw/hr. Its 80 gallons so I don't have to worry about recovery.

I think here in Eastern Pa the kw/hr is more than that Based on what friends/family pay per month.
Really haven't scrutinized our Electric bill in long time..
Our complete Electric bill is approx 70.00 month excluding a couple summer AC months.

 

[mchasal]

Would a Nyletherm use the same amount of electricity as a geotherm? I,too, am tired of paying over $1000 per year to heat up my hot water while the pellet stove heats the house!

Assuming you mean a Geospring here.

The difference between the Geospring and the Nyletherm is that the Geospring is a Hybrid heatpump/electric. So it has backup traditional electric heating elements for higher demand times. You can control whether the Geospring will run those elements or not via the operating mode on the panel.
So in heatpump only mode, I would expect the usage of the Geospring to be similar to the Nyletherm, though the fact that the Geospring has everything in a single insulated casing might up efficiency a tiny bit. In hybrid or high usage mode, the Geospring has the ability to consume much more power than the Nyletherm in order to shorten recovery time, but that will depend on your water usage.

I've had the Geospring for a couple of months and I've kept it in heatpump only mode and have not had issues running out of hot water with our family of 4.

 

[MarkF48]

Any comments/thoughts on this.....

http://www.amazon.com/GEH50DEEDSR-G...s/B00826MC3W/ref=dpx_acr_txt?showViewpoints=1