Comment on Heat-pump water heaters are a winner for the climate — and your wallet
alvvayson@lemmy.world 1 year agoSorry, tankless is the worst.
You will always be using peak electricity, which comes from the least efficient gas peakers.
With a tank, you can heat with much greener and cheaper off-peak electricity.
Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Tankless water heater owner here.
My tankless heats up around the same time as my old tank. Although the tankless uses energy around the time we shower, cook, and do laundry. The tank generally replenishes just shortly after we do that stuff.
Also, our tankless is smart and begins to heat a recirculator at predefined times of the day / week - or it can learn your usage patterns and only start up then.
It’s also worth noting that tankless water heaters aren’t all electric. There are lots of different solutions - one being gas.
All in all, our utilities bill has gone down. My only gripe is that the devices are much more complex. So if something goes wrong, a lot of plumbers get confused. You needs to be half-plumber half-IT guy to troubleshoot a lot of new tankless machines.
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 1 year ago
As a half-plumber, mostly-IT guy, I despise how tech is (very poorly) applied and implemented in devices like these. It’s always short-life tech attached to stuff that lasts 10-20 years, with complexity beyond necessity.
Lower tech would suffice just as well (think fewer integrated control boards and more external relays). Getting a replacement board in even a few years can be problematic.
Why does my furnace need a convoluted control board, when the primary control is the t-stat, and everything else could be done with a couple relays and a small, simple, timer circuit? Oh, that’s right, let’s make it harder/more expensive for the homeowner to repair.
Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I feel like that stuff could be done with a physical dial for temp and some version of this for recirculating. Image
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Hahah, right?
Troubleshooting a gas heat system recently, watching stupid led blinks on a board to figure out a limit switch was bad. Really? Uggh.
alvvayson@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I have a tankless gas heater, too. Very common in Europe.
But let’s not pretend they are good for the environment.
They are not.
Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Agreed. I’m just saying that there lots of different tankless solutions, and something like peak electrical grid times do not impact all tankless systems in the same way.
IMHO, gas tankless systems are kind of the hybrid car of the water heater world, and electric tankless the pure EVs. They’re both better for the environment, but the gas tankless still produce carbon. You’re only cutting emissions but about 20%-30%.
Electric = zero emissions + doesn’t need to vent + free heating if you have solar + might require both a plumber and an electrician to do the install
Gas = often gets hotter faster and handles load better + can be cheaper if you have cheap natural gas + still produces carbon + needs a stupid vent
alvvayson@lemmy.world 1 year ago
No, you are wrong on electric tankless heaters.
Their only redeeming quality is that they take less space.
You can’t power them directly with solar power. They need way too much power for that. They put a high strain on the grid during peak hours and therefore impede progress on decarbonizing the grid.
A water heater tank is a thermal energy store. Technology Connections made a video on that.