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Installing an On-Demand Hot Water System

Bob talks with Dan Driscoll of Rinnai about the new on-demand water heater being installed. Driscoll explains that the heater is a whole-house system sized for a three-bathroom household, laundry, and cleaning. An on-demand, tankless water heater is energy efficient because it does not store hot water. Eliminating the tank also saves basement space. The unit can run three showers simultaneously with a flow rate of 5.3 gallons per minute and no drop in hot water delivery. The water heater has a moveable controller on the side so that the temperature of the hot water can be adjusted from anywhere in the home. Driscoll opens up the water heater to show how the system works. Once the water is turned on, sensors detect the amount of water being used and the temperature of the incoming cold water. The system adjusts the gas burner to meet the set temperature. Driscoll shows Bob the dual-chamber sealed-combustion PVC pipe that brings combustion air through the outside chamber and exhausts fumes through an inner tube. The on-demand system is about 40% more efficient than gas-fueled tank water heaters and 70% more efficient than electric tank water heaters.

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Chapters from this episode

Preventing Water Infiltration in the Basement Now Playing

Preventing Water Infiltration in the Basement

Replacing Brass Water Pipes with PEX Tubing Now Playing

Replacing Brass Water Pipes with PEX Tubing

Reworking the Existing Plumbing Now Playing

Reworking the Existing Plumbing

Installing Basement Drainage Solutions and Sump Pumps Now Playing

Installing Basement Drainage Solutions and Sump Pumps

Installing an On-Demand Hot Water System Now Playing

Installing an On-Demand Hot Water System

Clip Transcript For:

Installing an On-Demand Hot Water System

computer-generated transcript - may not be 100% accurate

" Okay so we've got a water heater to talk about with Dan Driscoll and Dan's an old friend we've talked about these organized before. This is for the whole house right. This is the whole house system Bob is going to replace the tank heater. That was in the house this is size for a three bathroom household -- provide. Laundry cooking dishwasher and bathing for multiple fixtures. And also as a feature it's a cold start appliance meaning. It doesn't store water right very energy efficient right. No that's very big deal in a small house -- is here we're trying to. Capitalize on the basement space and if you had to take up an additional four square feet with a big tank that would you know be a waste. It's so this really can do that though I -- you're talking three bathrooms and in his three bedroom house I believe -- that you could have as many as six people. Needing to use showers and all that and this can supply it. This will allow the consumer to run multiple showers in the household at the same time indefinitely once we create flow. We will establish that flow and have that -- time unlike a tank heater which will run low on temperature right Kaczynski is he exactly so. How does it do it -- can we look in their -- components yes. Because it's a five point three you were saying earlier that's the forum and it's so that's the actual flow rate five point three gallons per minute. Correct what we do is we measure the -- that the rinnai will measure the water temperature on the inlet side. There's a controller here on the side. That was mounted on the side of the unit from him which the homeowner can set the water temperature -- can that be taken remotely and put some other part of this policy this can be mounted in a bathroom and a laundry your kitchen a backsplash excellent piece of grab the other one. The company. So you could theoretically. Alter the temperature for example if you wanted it hotter or cooler. You can use that remote. An application can be grandchildren and a bathroom and I can drop the want to temperature to a safe level with the would never be an issue of scalding right. Who they -- a lot of stuff in there don't they council busy. So the water feed the say the cold water's coming in we've got to move the -- the water service over to this location right and then what what happens in here."

" What happens is the cold water feed makes upon IPS connection right here. You need flow innate you know initiate the parents who we need a half a gallon per minute in flow it's about three eighths stream of water -- very small volume of water that would be established by. Opening a faucet era. That's our show about the -- Once the water enters the it. It's gonna get picked up by as a minister which is a temperature sensor. And then also the volume of water so it's measuring the volume of water and the temperature rise to what you've selected for the operating temperature. Then the burner makes an adjustment. The same way carburetor would in a car. Where's the fuel. The fuel is on a gas fit right here this is our gas burner right here is below our heat exchange OK so the burner is below. The water travels through these pipes through the heat exchanger. And this is our vent assembly which goes to the outside for the flue gas."

" OK so then what about cold air intake. We use a concentric vent which is a -- pass flue pipe. Which allows us to bring. Combustion -- end. It's sealed combustion and exhaust through his senate to all right so this is a sample of that early -- this is the actual one this is the termination line. They'll be -- to the outside. So our exhaust gas would be through this center tube and I combustion air would come in through this OD. Now the PVC. Is zero clearance from combustible -- had a wood frame timber to worry about setbacks. This piece here is what I would see. On the outside the building about two inches goes to the weather. -- this is our exhaust port and this is our inlet air it's so simple it's very compact and it's very I mean energy efficiency of big deal you're also saving money here right. All of this -- here with a typical gas consumption to about 40% savings wow. Over electric about 70% over electric it would be like 70% yeah depending on you kilowatt rate in this there's about 7% in New England here it's not good yeah hey pace that thank you Bob all right."

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