Finally Installed GE Hybrid Heat Pump Need Advice

traderfjp

<span style="font-size:16pt">I finally installed my hybrid heat pump electric heater with a storage tank to increase hot water capacity to 80 gallons. </span>

<span style="font-size:16pt">I will upload actual pics but for now I wanted to get opinions if I need to change the way it's plumbed. I guess I'm doing this backwards. </span>

<span style="font-size:16pt">Take a look and let me know what you think. I have pressure relief valves on both units for safety. In the drawing the cold water from the house goes to the GE heater then the hot water from the GE unit in plumbed into the cold water inlet of the storage tank. The hot water outlet on the storage tank brings the hot water to all faucets, etc. </span>

<span style="font-size:16pt">I have a taco that is plumbed to the drain valve (teed in with a drain valve) which pumps the water to the upper part of the GE tank. It is teed into the pressure relief valve. </span>

<span style="font-size:16pt">Opinions wanted. Thanks</span>

icesailor

WH Piping:

That may work for you.

In my 40+ years, I have piped storage tanks about every way there is, One stands out head and shoulders above the rest.

You don't show the direction of flow to the tanks but the cold MUST go into the water heater first. Being the active heater, you defeat the TPR valve by not having the cold water going into the WH. It needs cold water to work if needed. I pipe the circulator pump piping to the cold water inlet of the water heater, so it goes down the dip tube. I also now install mixers on the hot outlet to conserve hot water in the tank. If you get very hot water in the heat tank, you can control the outlet by using a storage tank.

traderfjp

Interesting

Hi,

I think your way would work too. I decided last night that I wanted to be able to isolate the storage tank with valves.  This way I can run the water heater with out the storage tank and if I see that I need more storage I can open the valves and have the extra capacity. Eventually I will put on a thermostat to turn on and off at the desired temp (not sure what that is yet)

Take a look at the new configuration.  Opinions water.

Thanks...

icesailor

Storage Tanks:

No, pipe it so that you can isolate the storage tank. And run the circulator by controlling the storage tank. That way, you can run the DHW tank at a higher temperature and the storage tank controlls the temperature to the fixtures. It takea a tribe of valves but it works well. Your way is too complicated. It is making my head hurt.

traderfjp

Hmmm

My setup is really just a storage tank with a circulator that circulated the water in a loop.  As the colder water from the storage tank enters the GE HWH it will be heated and returned back to the storage tank to make another trip around.  When I need hot water the storage tank will help out with capacity.  Lets hope.



Frank

icesailor

Tanks:

That's what you get when you do it like I do. The thermostat controls the circulator.

icesailor

Circulating storage tanks:

Frank,

There is an inherent problem with instantaneous gas DHW heaters. Short draws will not start them. Or, they start and stop all the time. The remedy is to install an 8 gallon electric hot water heater as a storage tank. You don't use the electric elements. The idea is to put in a circulator to pump the cold water out of the tank and through the tankless heater. The flow will trip the gas valve open when the circulator starts. When the storage tank is hot or satisfied, the pump stops and the gas valve closes. If you get short draws, the hot water in the tank takes care of the short or low demand. You are trying to do the same thing. Pipe the hot water to the fixtures from the hot on the tank. Come off the bottom of the tank with the circulator and pipe it to the cold inlet of the water heater or if an instantaneous heater, the cold inlet. The hot discharge from the heater goes into the cold of the storage tank. You use the bottom thermostat as a thermostatic switch to start and stop the circulator when hot water is called for.

With this piping arrangement, you can increase the control of hot water available and the amount of water stored. I have been using variations of this piping arrangement for more years than I care to remember. In my opinion, if you have solar hot water, I would use some variation of this piping arrangement and multiple tanks to store hot water and also control the temperature of DH Water.

You can spend a lot of money on complicated arrangements to make something work but I always go back to the fact that the ancestors of the Inca's in Peru, diverted a river to irrigate their crops from one side of a valley to another. They had no transit as we know it. But, they did. They took a large gourd, filled it with water, placed a floating object in the water with two equal sticks on it, and sighted across the valley to get a level line.

When I had my last house built, the builder tried to tell me that the foundation wasn't high enough when I told him it was too low. I told him the foundation was supposed to be 5' above the bench mark. That  it was 7' He told me it wasn't. I said it was. He wanted to know how I knew and where was my transit? I told him I stuck my 6' level in that pile of sand and used a story pole and I measured it. That if he left it like that, I would need a ramp to get in my garage. Get the surveyor. He told me that night that the surveyor said I was wrong and they had poured the footings.

I have a huge ramp to get into my garage. I had to have  rock walls so I could get out of the house and pay for a lot of dirt that they took away saying I didn't need it.

Keep it simple but don't be stupid.