No power and my water doesn't flow anyway...but folks with municipal water/sewer could certainly take advantage of hot water already in a tank type setup until it cools.
No power and my water doesn't flow anyway...but folks with municipal water/sewer could certainly take advantage of hot water already in a tank type setup until it cools.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Minnesota has required the powered vent water heaters on new construction since 2000. I had one in my previous house and in the current house. 12 years in the previous house and six years in this house without any water heater issues. I'm not sure what the point of the blower is. The electric ignition is nice as no gas wasted by pilot light and never a need to relight the pilot light. If power goes out I have no water anyhow due to well.
My current house had a massive remodel done when I bought it and converted water heater from electric to gas. I ended up with a powered blower water heater so it could vent through the wall through PVC. There was no place to put a metal vent to the roof for a conventional water heater. I prefer the powered blower type anyhow.
I turned my water heater off for safety reasons while using contact cement and forgot to turn the water heater back on. I still had a normal hot shower the next morning at the normal temperature setting even though the water heater had been off all night. I only remembered it was off when I didn't hear it running after my shower.
Last edited by Brian Elfert; 10-10-2020 at 7:06 PM.
Replaced my water heater last year. No problem finding a piloted 40 gallon unit on the shelf. No electricity needed, but an electronic pilot could be supported with a small UPS. A fan would need a slightly larger one.
We have no city water or sewer and power outages were really troubling. I had a Generac whole house natural gas generator installed two years ago and it works great. I was surprised that the installed cost was not too bad.
Derailing the thread a bit, but I also have a whole house generator because I have a well and a septic pump. My generator doesn't work right now because I have a bad gas shutoff valve and the guy who hooked up the gas made it hard to fix.
I have had my generator four or five years and not a single power outage other than a few momentary blips in power. A friend who is an electrician recommended I just get rid of it since my power is so stable. It seems silly to remove a generator that just needs a minor repair. I also had a whole house generator at my previous house and I had a three day outage once so having power was nice, especially for the A/C.
The minute you remove it, the power will drop, Brian. I agree with YOUR point of view...silly to eliminate something like that merely because of a poor plumbing component. You never know when the weather can do something nasty and not having water/septic is a bummer. That was the primary reason we bought ours as I mentioned previously.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
I was very happy with the installation of my generator. It is a very clean looking professional job.
Late to the party, again.
After 5 years of faultless operation, we were forced to scrap our generator.
A new subdivision dropped my Natural gas line pressure below starting requirements for my GE 12kw unit. A larger gas line was suggested (cost to me, $7k).
Since we already had a transfer switch, we removed the generator and installed a decommissioned EV battery as our backup (7kWh).
With our furnace, we'll pump and refrigerator running we get about 10 hours of backup power.
$10,500 total outlay, no moving parts. Silent operation.
Three outages in 4 years - it just works.
Mine looks a lot like this one.
http://www.mtvsolar.com/wp-content/u...7/LGBackup.jpg
Seems to me that this should be the gas supplier's problem if their service suddenly degraded. You didn't add anything new here that increased your demand...
While it's great you were able to move to the battery system, that $10K you put out for that was more than I paid for my 22K generator including installation, etc. And it will run for days if necessary. (and it's necessary here because no power means no water and no septic, not to mention all the other things that use electricity)
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Standby generators can be switched over to propane or gasoline.
Not a lot is saved by removing the pilot light on a water heater, as the heat from the pilot flame goes to heat the water
Replace a 40 year old oil with gas is a no brainer. It will pay for itself in just a couple years.
Heat pumps have changed. Here in Iowa when I worked on them back in the 70s and 80s they were terrible. I replaced the old gas furnace on my 4 seasons back porch with a ultra high efficiency mini split heat pump. Wow dropped our gas and electric bill to unbelievable levels and its comfortable unlike the old ones!!
Oh I worked in the commercial and industrial HVAC/R field for over 30 years...
Last edited by Bill George; 10-22-2020 at 3:38 PM.
Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10
My electrician friend claims my generator install is against code and I should remove it due to that and the fact I haven't had a power outage since I installed it four or five years. He says it is too close to the house for code even though I checked code on required clearances before install and it passed inspection. His reasoning has nothing to do with the bad gas valve. I have the valve, but I need to take the plumbing all apart to install the valve.
Mine is close to the house...it's about a foot and a half from the wall on the 250 year old stone portion of our home. It was installed after a permit was pulled and the location approved by the township. The required electrical inspection was also completed to close out the permit with the township. It sounds like you also had a permit, so I would say that your friend is, um...mistaken.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...