Four Hybrid Eternals for a Restuarant (photos)

ScottMP

I was showing Mark a photo of a solder joint and thought I would show you the whole job.

This restaurant had a 1.2 MBTU fin coil hot water heater with a 120 gallon storage tank. We removed the heater and installed four Eternal Hybrid on demand hot water heaters, The owner is ecstatic !!! Cut his full bill all most in half during the summer 

Henry

nice

Nice install! How did you get the common Cat IV vent approved? Or are they Cat II?  Are you not worried about negative pressure by using room air and not direct air directly into the units? Do the units have a vent flapper like the Lochinvar Crest to prevent combustion gases from getting into the unfired units?



Thanks

ScottMP

Good eye Henry

These photos were taken before the job was finished. Each unit gets it air from outside, I just hadn't drilled the holes yet. The 6" PVC is the common vent and that is an approved method of venting from the manufacture. I did it because the existing unit used a side vent and I thought it would be less work for the owner.

icesailor

Nice Install:

You are in MA. Our inspectors would loose their mind with the N36A Vacuum Valves upstream of the unit shut-offs. You need to drain the whole system to service the valves. They would also have a head explosion over no gas shut-offs OUTSIDE the units with unions so you can service the gas valves in the units without disrupting the whole system by turning that 2" gas cock at the 2" feed off.

I have a job where I am thinking something similar out. I can't get my mind around how to get the individual heaters to "stage" and come on on demand. Something with staged valves that open with variable pressure drop. I'd like it to be variable lead/lag but I don't know what is out there. I know what I can do with heating boilers, I just don't know what to do with domestic hot water heaters.

Nice clean piping though. And I'll bet you didn't have a single leak.

Charlie from wmass

look closer Chris

the gas valves are outside the units and before the unions. nice to know they have approved common venting for these units.

icesailor

Gas Piping:

Not so Charlie. Not being picky but I don't think that Scott did the gas piping. His piping on the water and vent is like mine. Soldiers at attention. Attention to detail.

With work as nice as that, anything or anyone out of order is like a stain on the front of a white dress shirt at a wedding. Only one unit has the gas valve at the manifold with the union above it. Another has the union upstream of the manifold so the valve is after the union. Unless Scott used two unions on the same unit.

Anyone who is as anal about lining things up as he is (takes one to know one) would have put ALL the shut-offs at the manifold for looks and functionality and the unions above the first ell for ease of tightening or removal. The unions on the horizontal between the units would be a PITA to open or close.

Someone else did the gas piping or connecting the units. NOT the person who did the vent or water piping. Water piping for sure because the same gas fitter who does the gas piping is responsible for the appliance venting in Massachusetts. Legally, the gas fitter isn't allowed to turn over responsibility to someone that is not in his employ and under the Master Plumber or Master Gas Fitters control. And that includes making sure that the appliance is converted to LP if required. Where I work, there are always cases of gas appliances not being converted and the installer ASSUMES that someone else does the conversion. Like the HVAC installer.

That piping arrangement stands out because it isn't consistent with the rest. If it was a schitt show, it would have just been another thing that was noticed. Because it doesn't conform to the rules of unity, "One thing out of place will be the first and only thing noticed", it stands out.

My old late boss would have noticed that the moment he saw it and immediately made me change it, no matter what I had to do to change it.

It doesn't take away from a really nice install. It just would have made it a little better.

ScottMP

While I appreciate the kind words

about detail ,., Charlie is correct all the units have a gas vale and then union. The photos maynot show it.

You ARE correct about the vacum breakers and I never noticed it before. Good eyes.

These units can be staged.

TonyS

Scott, did you

daisy chain them together for demand or did you pipe them with equal flow so they are all in operation?

Eternal did a demo for our local Masters association and they were showing how piping the units in a reverse return and firing all of them would have less wear than daisy linking.

 Nice looking job!