Found a big downfall to tankless hot water

[laundry_queen]

when the power goes out, so does your hot water. darn! Thankfully, we had all finished our showers before the 75 MPH winds cut our power for several hours.
That was something I didn't even think of because it IS gas powered, but all the controls require electricity. I wonder if there is a way to rig it for battery power? It can't take that much power...

On the plus side, this is the second power outage in the last month and while this time it wasn't very cold out, the first time it WAS. My super insulated house barely cooled off after 4 hours of no power. Maybe 1 or 2 degrees C, despite it being -20C outside. Also, my gas bill has been INSANELY low for how cold we were last month. This new heating system along with the tankless hot water and plus great insulation (spray foam) has cut my gas bill by about 60%. woohoo!

[TexasTowelie]

1. OMG, the laundry queen had to wash her clothes in cold water!

Congratulations on the savings that you are receiving with the tankless hot water heater and improved insulation. Everyone needs to make a better effort to reduce their energy consumption.

[Kaleva]

2. That's one reason I never want to get one.

With the storage tank gas water heater that has a standing pilot, one will continue to have hot water with the power out as long as they still have water and gas to the house.

Another reason is that the old style gas water heaters are very easy to fix. The most common problem that occurs with the old style gas water heater is the thermocouple which costs less then $10 and is rather simple to replace. Many homeowners can do this themselves thus saving on a service call. There are several youtube videos giving detailed step by step instructions on how to replace the thermocouple.

And with the storage tank water heater, a person has a emergency source of potable water in case there is an interruption in the water supply.

One should be aware that the high efficiency storage tank gas water heaters also require electricity to operate because they have electronic ignition.

Edit: But that's just me and my opinions based on my needs. For many people, a tankless water heater is a very good choice.

[kristopher]

3. You might want to get one of these for a backup

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I used this type of w/heater indoors for years in Japan. We had a Japanese bath of course, and we had one in the bath for showering off, one in the water closet, and one in kitchen.
They used a C cell battery for ignition. It isn't particularly high capacity, but when the choice is ice water it seemed pretty darned good.

[laundry_queen]

5. Interesting idea! Thanks! nt

[IrishAyes]

8. WOW!!!!!! So glad I stopped by to visit.

That looks like a heaven-sent device. While I'm not a 'prepper' in the political fringe sense, I do believe in practical home management, and I'm going to get one of those little cuties ASAP.

Very soon now I'll be getting my new gorgeous dual-fuel gas/lp living room heater installed; I chose it partly because the ignition is battery powered rather than electric. You couldn't give me a modern furnace.

[ConcernedCanuk]

4. My home is totally wired for generator back-up.

.
.
.

It was like that when I bought it.

I purchased an 8000 watt generator - and "installing" it only required plugging it in to an existing outside plug.

Power goes out, turn the key, hydro once more!

An elaborate but easy to use panel inside the house allows me to divert individual circuits from line to generator power -

I have no need to switch off the main - just turn on whichever circuits I need.

Handy part of that is, if I leave a light on in a certain room, but on line instead of generator - I will know exactly when line hydro has been restored when the light comes on, flip my switches and shut off the gas gobbling generator.

On rigging your heater controls for battery power - yup - pretty simple.

If your system is hardwired in, have an electrician install a proper plug in for the controls of the hot water heater.

If it's already just a plug - no need.

Either way - all you need then is a battery - car battery willl do in a pinch, but a deep cycle/marine battery is better, and an inverter.

An inverter to handle that would be well under 100$, and a deep cycle a wee bit more than that -

hydro goes out - unplug from the house to inverter.

HOT WATER!

CC

ps: battery plus inverter would also give you power for laptop/lights/radio - sumthing to ponder

[laundry_queen]

6. My ex's friend is an electrician

he wired our old house. I'll see if he could do this for me...thanks!

[hunter]

7. We have an AquaStar, the sort with the built in generator.

It still works when the power goes out.

It was a scratch & dent store orphan, I didn't choose it for any other reason than that.

What I've learned about these machines:

Smaller is often better. Ours was rated for a shower and a faucet. Larger heaters sometimes fail to light up for lower flows. Ours doesn't have any trouble lighting up and heating water for a single faucet, one, or both of our low flow showers. We've got flow compensating scald preventing shower valves, so even if somebody starts the washing machine on set to "hot" while both showers are on, no harm done, the shower flow is reduced, but it doesn't become cold. These sorts of modern shower valves are a "must" with these heaters if you don't want to be the household hot water cop.

But that leads to another problem. When we had a tank water heater our kids knew to limit their shower lengths or face the wrath of other family members. I installed our tankless water heater when they and other random teenagers were filling our house. Tankless did not reduce our energy bills. Teenagers will utilize "unlimited" hot water for long showers. (It's especially awkward to bang on the door yelling "I'M PAYING FOR THAT HOT WATER!" when they are not your own teenagers.)

Our kids are off in college or out on their own so now we are actually saving energy with the water heater. When we are not using hot water, we are not using gas.

[jxl]

9. no need for electricity

I've had two tankless water heaters (2 different houses)--Bosch and Aquastar (I think). The Bosch used two D cells. The Aquastar has some mechanism that when the water turns on it produces a spark.

I think the larger ones require electricity--but mine haven't.