New Heat Pump Hot Water Heater = All Electric Home

[JSH]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

In my country, a built-in heater element (replaceable) right at the shower head is more usual than central water heating, yet in regions with a colder weather it's more common to resort to central heating. Hotels and hospitals may also resort to central water heating more often.

I've seen those units in various places around the world. The B&B we stayed at in Scotland had an on-demand electric water heater right in the shower.

[oil pan 4]

Have to wonder what the reasoning is behind encouraging more people to use more electric applies when the power grid clearly can't handle unusually hot or cold periods.

[redneck]

.

Did you get rid of the old tank ?

If you haven’t, put a plug in the drain hole and build a pre heater for your new unit.










>

.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redneck

.

Did you get rid of the old tank ?

If you haven’t, put a plug in the drain hole and build a pre heater for your new unit.

Not a bad idea in the right location. I don't really have the room for a glass coffin around a water heater in my small urban lot nor do I believe a homebrew water preheater will add value to my home or make it sell faster.

Then there is the climate. That kind of simple solar preheater works in mild climates where freezing isn't an issue. In colder climates that drop below freezing you have to either use coolant with a heat exchanger or drain back systems for 4 season use. For a simple system it could be plumbed in parallel and only used in the summer.

[freebeard]

That's what the house my parents built in 1980 had.

The solar preheater was in the top of a sunroom, regular electric heater, and an on-demand heater (but it was in the kitchen, not at the shower).

But they got a solar installer out of Dallas, OR, that wore a ten-gallon hat with a little fan of feathers on the front. I didn't trust the guy, he borked the installation and the subsequent owners removed it, and the skylight.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by freebeard

That's what the house my parents built in 1980 had.
.

The 80’s had a lot of sketchy thermal solar companies. My parents were talked into a thermal collector on their roof that was supposed to save them huge amounts of money on heat. It worked but the savings were minimal. We tool it off about 10 years later when we replaced the roof.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by redneck

.

Did you get rid of the old tank ?

If you haven’t, put a plug in the drain hole and build a pre heater for your new unit.










>

.

I'd run that before a heat pump hot water heater.
But I would have to drain and isolate it during the winter.

[freebeard]

Else one could install it vertically, and put two rotating sleeves around it; each half transparent sheet arcrylic Fresnel lenses out of old big screen TVs. The other half insulated

One sleeve moves to follow the Solar cycle*, the other the day/night cycle. Turned against each other it's an insulated box.

The result is optimized gain and loss.

Edit: I think that's wrong. Would work if horizontal. One fixed, one rotating in either orientation?

[freebeard]

The 80’s had a lot of sketchy thermal solar companies.

I thought at the time the fancy hat was a tell.

[freebeard]

Coincidinkly; this posted today:

1936 Solar Energy - The Poor Man's Cousin

A general backgrounder with an interesting perspective: Solar was kilt by coal, and then nuclear, but it's coming back again.