Hot Water Tank Help

SBoston

What are my options? I currently have a electric hot water tank that is having problems. We now have natural gas in our house (installed when we put in a new steam boiler) and i think i would like to change over to a gas fired tank since we have to do a replacement. Since we don't have a vent setup we need to figure out how to vent the tank. I have had several professionals give us information and i have heard very different plans.



One guy told me that we could tie into the Boiler vent and vent through the chimney with a standard draft tank. This was the cheapest way to go.

The next guy told me that we couldn't do that and he would have to install a direct vent with a power vent. We could do either a tankless or tank model, both prices were about the same (expensive).



My concern with this option is that our first floor is covered in windows and i don't understand how he is going to vent this thing?



The last plan was to put a hot water loop off the boiler with a superstore. this was by far the most expensive plan and since our boiler only runs at about 84% eff. i don't think it's the best plan; however, this does solve the venting problem.



Help would be appreciated.

Jean-David Beyer

Indirect hot water heater.

Generally speaking, I would go with the Superstore. I am a homeowner, not a professional, and I have a hot water heating system (gas) not steam. My boiler is cold start and quite efficient, but less so when heating domestic hot water. This is because it is a condensing boiler, and I do not imagine it condenses very much when heating hot water (though it does a little). It is tricky to evaluate the efficiency. It is probably more efficient than a gas hot water heater because it does not have the vent through the tank carrying heat out of the tank and up the stack all the time. Also, the heat exchanger in the boiler is likely to be more efficient than the one in the gas water heater.



I am not a professional, and all I know about steam systems I learned here. I think the main question you need to answer to make a decision is how you are going to heat your hot water when it is not the heating season. For me, I use my boiler all year long. But this is not expensive because the boiler contains only 3 quarts of water, so it heats up very fast, and the circulator runs for 2 minutes after the indirect is satisfied (with the burner off) to get the remaining heat from the boiler into the tank.



The higher initial cost of an indirect system has to be dealt with by deciding when you wish to spend the money: up front, or a little a month. I imagine the professionals here will be able to advise you better in making these choices.

Charlie from wmass

When done properly

the indirect produces 3 times the hot water of a chimney vented tank style heater of the same size. This requires a bronze three piece circulator and a stainless steel tank for long life.

bob eck

water heater

look into a A O Smith Vertex tank type gas water heater 76000 btu input delivers 127 gallons first hour and 92 gph second hour. vents with pvc pipe sidewall or can go vertical out of the house. this unit qualifies for the fedderal tax credit of 30% up to $1500 hurry it ends 12-31-10 or Noritz tankless gas water heater vents with stainless steel pipe or another model vents with pvc pipe. also qualifies for 2010 federal tax credit