Info on alternate home heating methods

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I had a new house built in 2014, forty miles south of the Colorado border. Had radiant floor heating installed. I have a boiler heat system heated by natural gas. I pay between $30 to $45 max a month for heat and domestic hot water. I also have solar panels when installed, cut my high electric bill in half.
 
i agree, you were smart and built the house with energy saving in mind , my hat is off to you sir !!
 
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Heating update: I have hot water, but...the biggest problem is that the builders back in the day ran gas lines to houses and then would split them off to each home. There is a problem with gas pressure. They will need to eliminate the line splits and run dedicated lines to my neighbor and me. The good news is that we will get a beefier gas line so that higher-powered burners that we dream about will not be an issue. It should happen within a week. Until then we keep an eye on the water heater, etc.

I may keep the heat low though. I like having the 3ku of comfort. :D
 
When I lived in Denmark, I had one apartment that had a water heater near the sink in the kitchen It was called Geyser. It was small and wall mounted with no tank. It was a cheap way to have hot water. That apartment did not have a shower, just a WC and the only water was in the kitchen. Yes, it was an old building and built for working class tenants. I really don't understand why an instant on hot water is expensive, but I have heard that before about it in North America.
 
When I lived in Denmark, I had one apartment that had a water heater near the sink in the kitchen It was called Geyser. It was small and wall mounted with no tank. It was a cheap way to have hot water. That apartment did not have a shower, just a WC and the only water was in the kitchen. Yes, it was an old building and built for working class tenants. I really don't understand why an instant on hot water is expensive, but I have heard that before about it in North America.

It is whole-house tankless that is expensive. A small unit for one room is not that bad, if it is electric.

I wanted a whole house system for a two story house with three bathrooms, the kitchen with dishwasher, and laundry room. The unit itself was expensive, but I also needed to upgrade some of my gas pipes to a larger volume pipe to supply my two furnaces and the tankless water heater. That was very expensive. IIRC, it was around $15,000... ten years ago. It could be more or less now. Anyway, the ROI was too long for me to justify.

CD
 
It is whole-house tankless that is expensive. A small unit for one room is not that bad, if it is electric.
It was gas. It was at eye level. Noticing the gas flame come on when I turned on the hot water was what tipped me off to how the thing worked. I hadn't actually thought about it before that. I guess electric could heat the water as quickly as gas, once it gets going.
 
It was gas. It was at eye level. Noticing the gas flame come on when I turned on the hot water was what tipped me off to how the thing worked. I hadn't actually thought about it before that. I guess electric could heat the water as quickly as gas, once it gets going.

Installation of a small electric water heater is easy and cheap. Some of my friends even had them on their campers, and installed them DIY.

I wasn't even aware that small gas units were available. Large electric units are pretty expensive to operate.

When operating, large gas units use a lot of gas, but only use gas when there is a demand for hot water. They don't waste gas keeping a big tank of water hot all the time, so tankless is cheaper to operate over the long term.

CD
 
I wasn't even aware that small gas units were available. Large electric units are pretty expensive to operate.
They were a cheap way of upgrading an old cold water apartment in Europe. I don't know if they still make anything like that. Seems to me like they should.
 
We had one of those geysers in the kitchen.
But it also worked for the shower and sinks upstairs.
One at the time.
If my dad thought my brother or I showered too long, he would turn on the hot water in the kitchen and the shower upstairs got cold (resulting in angry screams and swearing).

Here we can get dedicated gas boilers for camp showers.

The easiest and cheapest way I have seen for hot water was at a Mozambique campsite.
There were copper cold water pipes to every shower.
You would put a little bowl with a wick and parafin directly under the pipe and had instant hot water. Temperature control was by opening/closing the single tap
 
Germany . . . in the 60's my host family had a (smallish) hot water heater mounted on the wall - it had one pipe to the kitchen, and one pipe to the bathroom.
when you wanted hot water, you had to deposit 20 pfenning per "batch" . . .
fast forward to 1985 . . . hunting for a rental house in Germany . . .
came across a 'recently renovated property' - and yes, I was stunned to see the same arrangement as the sole hot water source in the house - not an apartment... an whole house....

our son ripped out the "big" water heater in his RV and installed a propane tankless heater - all the hot water you want,,, until the propane bottle runs out . . .
he's very happy with it - and has "observed" the gas usage is actually somewhat less with the tankless. obviously it uses bunches more when "running" - but essentially 'none' keeping a large tank hot . . .
 
". . . . the new water heater is not drawing exhaust up the flue."
had similar issue with the house heater - would not 'light off' . . . .
rather quickly traced to a blocked flue - the birds built a nest in the flue pipe....

many?/most?/all? of the modern have sensors to ensure "safe operation" - and if they cannot establish a safe flow for exhaust gases . . . they 'no worky'

it is of course possible that the chimney flue has crumbled / broken / clogged - more likely 'something built a nest' blocking the flow. I would strongly urge you to forgo the PVC DIY idea, and find out why the existing installation is not venting properly.
 
Nothing was blocking it. It just had not heated sufficiently to let the hot air rise as the cold air was weighing it down. Once the pipe rose above freezing, it started to draw fine.

We had needed to clean the chimney anyway, so already got a chimney sweep to come by just to double check.
 
That true you know... when lighting a wood fire in an open fireplace Dad taught me to light a large paper wick and hold it up the chimney to get the air flowing.

So I guess the same holds true with pipe for appliances. but there must be some sort of trick to aid that. Other than heating a cold attic... perhaps wrap some insulation around those exhaust pipes?
 
Nothing was blocking it. It just had not heated sufficiently to let the hot air rise as the cold air was weighing it down. Once the pipe rose above freezing, it started to draw fine.

We had needed to clean the chimney anyway, so already got a chimney sweep to come by just to double check.

My chimney it not as tall as the peak height of my roof, which is on a tall house, and has a 12/12 pitch. To make matters worse, the chimney is on the South side of the house, so a cold North wind can come over the roof, and really blow down on the chimney top.

Sooooo, when I light my chimney, I have to have the back door open a few inches for about 30-45 seconds, so the chimney can develop a draft. That is also why I have gas logs. When real wood fires go out, the draft dies, and the house fills with smoke -- unless you leave the back door open, which is not an option.

Physics is phun, isn't it?

My gas logs are 50% ceramic (50% cement), which is the highest percentage ceramic on the market. Once those babies get red hot, they give off a ton of heat to the room. During the "Big Freeze" of 2021, when the power was on and off on 30 minute intervals, I slept by the fireplace, all toasty warm, while the rest of the house was about 54 degrees.

CD
 
While the temp fix was being done, we had no gas coming into the house. We both were near the wood fireplace and all three kittens were with us. Cozy!
 
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