TT Pretige Excellence experiences?

Dylan Thomas

I'm a homeowner looking for input regarding the TT Excellence combi boiler.  I've got my heart set on it for a remodel.  It fits the mechanical room (4' x 5') nicely, and I like the idea of the indirect/tankless hot water heating.

I've got a good mechanic lined up to install it, and he says as long as I'm not looking to fill a large whirlpool tub I should be fine.  I've talked to a few other plumbers on jobsites (I'm an Audio/Video contractor) and the majority of them say 'just get an indirect tank'.  A large tub is not in the plan but a multiple-outlet massage shower is under negotiation with the better half.

This is a 2 bath 3 bed ranch in Connecticut, and we're the sort of family that's used to saying "I'm taking a shower, don't use the hot water!"  Based on a lot of reading, I believe the DHW side should work out, but does anybody out there have personal experiences, good or bad?

I've poked around this site on and off over the years, and I'm always impressed with the info I find. Thanks to Dan and everybody that chips in!

-Dylan

Kal Row

fuhgedabowit...

to get a good hot powerful non-stop shower in the northeast where the street water is 40f in the winter, you need to put 120kbtu into the water!!!

i myself use a pair of regular high recovery 50gal with 65kbtu burners each - so i got it 



i do rinnai setups for people in Brooklyn but i use 2 rinnais as one is not good enough



so while the triangle tube “excellence” product is great - it wont be great for u – better use one of their solo 250 ‘s with one of their smart 80 tanks where you can put all the BTUs from the boiler into the water – you will be able to make two showers at once non-stop!!!



lets do the math



i takes 1BTU to raise 1lb of water 1 degree in an hour – but we don’t work with pounds/hours – rather gallons per minute, sooooo,



to go from pounds to gallons u multiply by 8.33 (8.33lbs in a gal of 60f water), and to go from hours to minutes you multiply by 60, together = 499.8 we just round up to 500



so, to raise 1 gallon of water 1 degree in a minute u need 500btu (60*8.33)



to get a good unrestricted power full 5gpm mixed down @ 105f shower – u know, the kind that really pisses off environmentalists, you need to heat 3gallons a minute from 40f to 120f or an 80f rise, 3gpm * 80f * 500btu from prev calc = 120,000… voila!!!

– it’s not rocket science!!! – if you u don’t mind the 2.2gpm feeble showers you can get away with less btu – but the “excellence” still wont be enough in the winter!!!



I don’t build heating systems anymore – I build hot water systems and snowmelt systems – the heat is free!!! – in my neighborhood, everyone’s got body spray showers and large whirlpools, and want to run those nonstop too, so my typical household DHW design point is 6gpm at an 80f rise - if you have the space for storage tanks – solar collectors preheating the street water from 40f to 80f would save you a bundle, vacuum tube collectors can do this easily on a subzero but sunny winter day – yes I got them installed in Brooklyn from a residential to a huge commercial setup on top of an apt building