Indirect-fired water heaters

hydronicsmike

...That's why you'd always want to pipe the Indirect DHW Tank off the boiler loop in parallel, rather than primary/secondary. At least then only the DHW loop heats up, right?

But don't we always want to insulate the piping anyways? I mean we want to conserve energy (and save the money), don't we? It would also eliminate the overheating of the boiler room in the summer.

I like the solar idea. Just talked to a guy in Calgary who claims to have a small solar collector to be enough for a 40Gal Indirect for summertime use to a very affordable price.

Mike

D Kastella

Indirect-fired water heaters

How much better are indirect-fired water heaters (e.g., Amtrol Boilermate) than convential (gas) water heaters? Will it save money if I replace a virtually new convential heater with an indirect-fired heater, or is an indirect-fired heater simply fashionable?

kevin coppinger_4

well it depends....

if you have and old 30+ year old boiler maybe not...if you have a newer 84%+ boiler, yes it will save you money and give you great recovery. it will also be better for your boiler to not be sitting idle in your basement for 3-4 months. kpc

Mark Hunt

Look at it this way


You pay $x.00 to heat the water that sits in your gas water heater. That water heater is connected to a chimney and is drafting 24/7. So even when the burner is NOT on, the heat you paid $x.00 for is going up the chimney.

Now with an indirect fired water heater there is no vent and they are insulated much better than the gas water heater. The stand by loss on an indirect is about 1/2 degree per hour as opposed to a standard water heater with about 6 degrees per hour.

The warranty on indirects is better than standard water heaters and if you have a relatively new boiler, the combustion efficiency of the boiler will be better than the standard water heater.

People sometimes worry about the boiler running in the summer. Well the water heater runs in the summer too, but the boiler with an indirect will run less.

Hope this helps.

Mark H

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hot_rod

The biggest issue with indirects

is when the tank and boiler ar placed in a small space. That room can get very warm during summer dhw firing.

A contractor recently told me they have had to go back and add fan circulation to "dump" that excessive heat.

His idea was to run the boilers fan inducer with an air temperature thermostat to ventilate the room. I imagine you take a big hit on fuel efficiency when you use the boiler to "cool" the room. Regardless, thinly insulated boilers running 180 or more WILL dump a lot of heat into a small room.

Water heaters with their 2" foam jackets don't seem to overheat the space near as much. Flue losses may, or may not be the same as the boiler depending on the boiler type and if a vent damper is in place.

Something to think about when using a boiler in a small space in summer months, I suppose, too much of a good thing. Nothing like a chunk of 180F cast iron in your air conditioned space! The battle of the fuels!

Now if you had solar DHW that boiler or water heater may not even need to fire on hot sunny days How's that for energy efficiency

hot rod

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