The humble water heater could be the savior of our energy infrastructure woes
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Re: The humble water heater could be the savior of our energy infrastructure woes
#2I think these water heaters in question are actually hybrid units. They cool the surrounding room to maintain a temperature set point. In some places, colder room air and thus more condensation is not appreciated.
A less-sophisticated approach is to put your tank heater on a timer. Think carefully before you do this. Does your tank heater have the capacity to keep the water hot for a full shower, until you’re back under the non-peak schedule? If it doesn’t, you’ll be the first to hear about it.
Re: The humble water heater could be the savior of our energy infrastructure woes
#3I think these water heaters in question are actually hybrid units. They cool the surrounding room to maintain a temperature set point. In some places, colder room air and thus more condensation is not appreciated. A less-sophisticated approach is to put your tank heater on a timer. Think carefully before you do this. Does your tank heater have the capacity to keep the water hot for a full shower, until you’re back un…
Large insulated tanks of water are cheap. Sizing your house for a full week’s hot water is going to be cheaper than paying peak rates. That doesn’t help people today, but water heaters don’t last that long.
Alternatively a tankless water heater provides both redundancy and instantly hot water.
Re: The humble water heater could be the savior of our energy infrastructure woes
#4I think these water heaters in question are actually hybrid units. They cool the surrounding room to maintain a temperature set point. In some places, colder room air and thus more condensation is not appreciated. A less-sophisticated approach is to put your tank heater on a timer. Think carefully before you do this. Does your tank heater have the capacity to keep the water hot for a full shower, until you’re back un…
>A less-sophisticated approach is to put your tank heater on a timer. Think carefully before you do this.
Do not do this without understanding the lifecycle of legionella pneumophila, or you will face a dramatic decrease in your quality of life.
Re: The humble water heater could be the savior of our energy infrastructure woes
#5"This approach can be deployed far faster than dam construction"
Can we really manufacturer that many hot water tanks in less time than building a damn?
Re: The humble water heater could be the savior of our energy infrastructure woes
#6I think these water heaters in question are actually hybrid units. They cool the surrounding room to maintain a temperature set point. In some places, colder room air and thus more condensation is not appreciated. A less-sophisticated approach is to put your tank heater on a timer. Think carefully before you do this. Does your tank heater have the capacity to keep the water hot for a full shower, until you’re back un…
>A less-sophisticated approach is to put your tank heater on a timer. Think carefully before you do this. Do not do this without understanding the lifecycle of legionella pneumophila, or you will face a dramatic decrease in your quality of life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionnaires'_disease
Yeah, timer or grid controlled water heaters are old and busted (especially with bacteria concerns due to a lack of in tank convection). New hotness are heat pump water heaters that are very efficient and can even add cool air to a conditioned spaces by their inherent operation. Electric vehicle charging orchestrated as large aggregate loads are what replaces “the humble water heater.”
Tankless heaters are great if you’re burning gas, but electric versions are wildly inefficient versus a heat pump and require very large circuits and service entrances on the load center/breaker panel.
Re: The humble water heater could be the savior of our energy infrastructure woes
#7I think these water heaters in question are actually hybrid units. They cool the surrounding room to maintain a temperature set point. In some places, colder room air and thus more condensation is not appreciated. A less-sophisticated approach is to put your tank heater on a timer. Think carefully before you do this. Does your tank heater have the capacity to keep the water hot for a full shower, until you’re back un…
Large insulated tanks of water are cheap. Sizing your house for a full week’s hot water is going to be cheaper than paying peak rates. That doesn’t help people today, but water heaters don’t last that long. Alternatively a tankless water heater provides both redundancy and instantly hot water.
Large tanks are cheap, square feet of residential space are expensive. Tankless water heaters work well when powered by nat gas, but if you want electric it’s not great.
I’ve been intending to do solar water heating, and convert from gas to electric, but the old heater gave out at the wrong time. So the current plan is build the solar and make a new place to move the electric tank into, then use the other tank for extra storage of the solar heated water. The good news about climate change is that I never have to worry about the pipes freezing any more.
Re: The humble water heater could be the savior of our energy infrastructure woes
#8I think these water heaters in question are actually hybrid units. They cool the surrounding room to maintain a temperature set point. In some places, colder room air and thus more condensation is not appreciated. A less-sophisticated approach is to put your tank heater on a timer. Think carefully before you do this. Does your tank heater have the capacity to keep the water hot for a full shower, until you’re back un…
I have a few servers that I have in a rack in my basement for various projects and work that I do. I ended up having to cool it in the summer so I made a small room around it to limit the amount I had to cool.
When I replaced my water heater, I went with the hybrid model and dropped the AC. The room stays cool, my water heater uses less power on average and I don't have to fire up the ac unit at all.
Re: The humble water heater could be the savior of our energy infrastructure woes
#9I think these water heaters in question are actually hybrid units. They cool the surrounding room to maintain a temperature set point. In some places, colder room air and thus more condensation is not appreciated. A less-sophisticated approach is to put your tank heater on a timer. Think carefully before you do this. Does your tank heater have the capacity to keep the water hot for a full shower, until you’re back un…
>A less-sophisticated approach is to put your tank heater on a timer. Think carefully before you do this. Do not do this without understanding the lifecycle of legionella pneumophila, or you will face a dramatic decrease in your quality of life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionnaires'_disease
Slightly smarter timers could fix this problem. Raise the tank to 140+ once a day, probably at 4am, and work that into the energy storage regime...
Re: The humble water heater could be the savior of our energy infrastructure woes
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
>A less-sophisticated approach is to put your tank heater on a timer. Think carefully before you do this. Do not do this without understanding the lifecycle of legionella pneumophila, or you will face a dramatic decrease in your quality of life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionnaires'_disease
Yeah, timer or grid controlled water heaters are old and busted (especially with bacteria concerns due to a lack of in tank convection). New hotness are heat pump water heaters that are very efficient and can even add cool air to a conditioned spaces by their inherent operation. Electric vehicle charging orchestrated as large aggregate loads are what replaces “the humble water heater.” Tankless heaters are great if y…
Heat pump water heaters do seem promising... But many water heaters live in cold basements...
Classic tanked electric is so cheap to make & operate, I have come to think they may always be with us. (Though certainly a heat pump water heater is an easy choice in the right climate)