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Household water heaters/ Heating

afstruct

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Not after recommendations as such = ( a bit late for that = just replaced mine ).!!!!

More curious peoples thoughts/experiences/preferences.

There of course are big variables = location , surrounding terrain, number of people in household and age breakdown , not to mention what supply but who is company suppling etc

Have thought over the last year or so do I change ( was an electric 250l on off peak , I believe both 1 and 2 , in NSW , if that makes a difference ).

AS said had thought about solar , ( I have a small solar electric power supply system= about , guessing 11 years old ).
Gas = not really an option= only LPG bottles = my heater= well over 18 years old .
I did seriously think about a heat pump/electric but at a few x $1k ( looking earlier this week ) ,nah !
bo saftey

It= guessing shxt itself last Saturday / Sunday = Monday shower = ( didn't think much of but it's cooler ) , Tuesday =yeah/nah something is wrong.

So by Thursday =new for same 250 l electric but also upgraded the the off peak switchbox fuse/switch to a combo safety/earth leakage switch.
Hoping newer = a little less power usage.

Can't complain = bought here just over a month short of 15 years ago and this water heater had to be 1 to 5 years old back then .

For the first 7 or so years I'd check the sacrificial anode every couple of years.

Went to Tradelink (guessing 5 or 6 years ago ) ,= oldmate gave me attitude ( get a new anode =$120 =not worth it ) .
Well got lucky = $20 or so a year = I think it was !!!!

This new one has a 10 year warranty= I don't expect this one to unfortunately last as long.

Thoughts !!!!!
 

chrisp

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I’ve been looking in to replacement hot water systems too just so I know what I want to buy when the existing gas hot water system fails. The existing system (which I had installed when I bought the place) is about 25 years old and still going (touch wood!).

I looked in to (dedicated) solar (such as an evacuated tube system) but the thinking now is that it is better to use that roof space for PV panels and use that electricity to heat the water. The excess PV production can then be used by other appliances or sold to the grid.

So, when our gas storage system finally carks it, I‘ll change over to an electric heat-pump system. I already has a circuit wired through for it, and we have a reasonable sized PV system (6.7kW). I had the quote from a couple of years ago freshened up, and they are now about $1,000 more. Everything seems to have gone up under COVID!

I figure that storing our excess PV generation as hot water is more cost effective than buying a battery.
 

losh1971

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I put in an Apricus at the old house. Can't remember the price but was probably $7-$8k installed maybe more. Tell you what in the summer it slashed my power bill. In the winter it was ok, still cheaper than off peak standard unit. Kinda wished we put one in the new house but the build on this place was probably $350k or more plus shed and land, plans and permits. So probably all up $550k, so really didn't have spare coin to go with top of the line solar like I did at the old house.
 

J_D 2.0

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I just replaced my hot water heater last year. The previous owner put in a 320 odd litre tank IIRC which was overkill seeing as it’s on an 18 hour tariff.

Went and replaced it with a 250 litre system as it was the cheapest one with a decent capacity.

I’ve heard that the go for solar hot water now is to get a standard dual element electric tank and feed one element on the off peak tariff and one element during the middle of the day from your solar panels (there’s a special controller box setup to do this).

That way you don’t pay to heat your water most of the time as the solar panels are doing it but you still get to keep your off peak tariff as one of the elements is “hardwired“ to the off peak tariff as required by law. Most of the time you won’t need to use it though as the solar will be doing most of the work.

The cheaper option is to just have a standard tank on a dumb timer to run during the middle of the day so your self consuming your solar during the day but if it’s cloudy you’ll end up paying top dollar for the standard tariff.
 
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VS 5.0

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We had to replace our 20 yr old gas storage tank a couple of years ago.

Had an instantaneous gas unit installed.

No point boiling the kettle all day for a couple of cups of coffee.
 

Deuce

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No point boiling the kettle all day for a couple of cups of coffee.
This exactly!

At my last house we put a good PV system in, no battery, but a controller for any excess power generation we weren't using to go to hot water, so didn't pay for hot water during the summer.
But the point of it was - you don't have your coffee and then boil the jug! You heat the jug slowly and cheaply over a couple of hours so it is ready to go at coffee time.
We even set up our new dishwasher to run a more economic cycle based on hot water going in instead of cold.

Bad news is, the new owners rung me several months after sale because the little controller for hot water had gone kaput! (1yr warranty, probably lasted 3, and was the 'newer better version' when we bought it) - pretty terrible.

New house is on gas instant hot water, which gives good pressure, but you gotta make sure the water lines aren't too long or the delay for hot hand wash is terrible. (Recently fixed a small leak and shortened input about a metre or 2 and it's a noticable reduction for delay on hot water for hand wash in toilet room)
Installed a smaller PV system on this place as it doesn't have a hot water cylinder.
 

Dylan kingswood

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I quite like the apricus tube system have installed 2 systems with a rinnai gas instantaneous, so hot water collects in storage tank and then flows through the rinnai if it's at temp then the unit won't fire up. Obviously a expensive start up for a install bit worth it.
Rheem dux and rinnai hot water cylinders don't expect to get any longer than ten years before they rust out.
Heat pump units are **** aswell same life span with a bigger outlay,
 

rambunctious

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I quite like the apricus tube system have installed 2 systems with a rinnai gas instantaneous, so hot water collects in storage tank and then flows through the rinnai if it's at temp then the unit won't fire up. Obviously a expensive start up for a install bit worth it.
Rheem dux and rinnai hot water cylinders don't expect to get any longer than ten years before they rust out.
Heat pump units are **** aswell same life span with a bigger outlay,
Every steel cylinder should have the anode replaced first in 4.5 to 5 years max then every 5 years from then on should give 30 years motoring.
Not hard to replace them, turn off power and water, release the pressure at the to valve lever, (don't burn yer foot when the hot water comes out) and unscrew the anode centre of top with a socket to suit, and they can be bought online reasonably priced.
Make sure you get the correct anode.
Little thread seal and fit the new anode.
Turn water back on slowly then power.

Heat pumps are simply an air con unit in reverse heating the water and fwiw too many moving parts just like solar hot water split system (tank on ground panels on roof)

Even better is the stainless steel tank which costs about $200 more then steel but well worth it.
Solar hot water is too costly now, much better to spend the money on a solar power system as large as you can afford and as large as the roof will carry.
We still have stainless solar hot water thermosyphen (tank on roof) plus 3.25 kw solar power but of course in Qld both these work (usually) good.

As the OP said, it depends totally on your situation.

Only 2 of us in the house.

Just my 2 cents worth after 74 years on the earth, 40+ of these as plumber drainer builder part time electrician and gas fitter.
 

J_D 2.0

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We had to replace our 20 yr old gas storage tank a couple of years ago.

Had an instantaneous gas unit installed.

No point boiling the kettle all day for a couple of cups of coffee.
The joys of having a gas reservation policy hey? You‘d need a second mortgage to pay the gas bill here on the east coast!
 

J_D 2.0

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I quite like the apricus tube system have installed 2 systems with a rinnai gas instantaneous, so hot water collects in storage tank and then flows through the rinnai if it's at temp then the unit won't fire up. Obviously a expensive start up for a install bit worth it.
Rheem dux and rinnai hot water cylinders don't expect to get any longer than ten years before they rust out.
Heat pump units are **** aswell same life span with a bigger outlay,
You need to replace the anode/s in the tank if you want more than 10 years out of the tanks. As soon as the sacrificial anode is consumed the tank will start to rust and it’s goodbye tank. You should replace the anode at least every 6-8 years.
 
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