Electric hot water systems defended

Thee life of a hot water unit is indeterminable. Average life could be 15 years, could be more, could be less. Upon replacement, the plumber has to abide by plumbing regulations and fit the TMV or tempering valve. Old houses (more than 10 years) won’t have seperate plumbing pipe systems to feed thr bathroom and kitchen and laundry, so the tempered hot water will be at the lower temperature. Storage hot water above 60 degrees, delivery to bathroom = approx 45 degrees.

Heat exchanger in an instantaneous or continuous flow unit is less than a litre, so don’t panic over that amount. Hot water units are placed near to the main source of drawdown, the laundry. Teh trade off is the kitchen is a long way from the laundry. Bigger houses (there are plenty) require longer piping = more wastage. Also, they can have 2 units.

I have a storage system, set to the lowest temperature I can handle. Gas units have adjustable temperature controls, have a look. In Summer, I turn it down further. Incoming water is warmer. Length of shower = variable, depending on many things.

Storage units have a relief valve that may drip some water. Use a bucket to capture the water adn use it in garden.

Oh I do consider myself lucky to have hot water running at all and thank you for that good news. 🙂

HB74- if you’ve got a Freeloader, then consider yourself lucky. My earlier information post was based on what I found out in the process of replacing my Freeloader- it began a slow leak after 23 years of totally reliable service, so you’ve probably still got several years of dependable hot water.

Well thanks for clearing that up The cat did it. That’s terrible news to my head.

Suppose I’m glad to have had a good gas system outside for the last 15 years then (brand new Vulcan Freeloader before I moved in replacing aa 20 or 30 litre on wall in laundry one). Hope I’m last on the Housing list for replacement. I’m sure there’s better but mine has been trusty and barely ever run out of hot water.

Instead of a ban, the Greens could have proposed that any electric storage hot water system installed after a certain date has to be run on “green power”. It’d avoid the issues associated with a ban but have the same (or better) environmental outcomes. You could phase it out once emissions trading comes in.

No, the electricity from the Snowy (if any, given the drought) is fed into the Eastern states grid. The Commonwealth used to have a small annual allocation from the Snowy that was nominally allocated to the ACT, but I’m not sure if that survived the corporatisation of the Scheme. for all practical purposes, we run on coal and gas, same as NSW.

Interesting issue- if electric hot water is so bad that they want to ban it, what do they want to do with electric-boosted solar systems? shouldn’t they ban them too, and only allow gas-boosting?

Canberra runs off hydro-electric though?

Getting back to the arguement that electric water heaters are efficient (the Labor view), I spoke to Andrew Barr’s advisor yesterday and he says electric heaters are efficient in converting electricity to hot water (true) but agrees that if you get that electricity from a coal-fired powerhouse then the carbon footprint of electric hot water is twice as bad as gas hot water. That is why juristictions throughout the world are now banning electric hot water systems. South Australia is a local example. They are so bad the USA Dept of Energy has recently decided not to award any “stars” to electric hot water systems.

AG and Niftydog- it’s more likely to be a plumber issue than a heater setting issue. Storage heaters are supposed to hold water at at least 60 degrees for health reasons (don’t want bugs growing in them). The 50 degree limit only applies to bathing locations- a plumber can split the hot water system’s output, so that one line provides full heat water to the kitchen/laundry, while the line to the bathroom is fitted with a tempering valve that adds some cold water to the line so that the water at the tap is no more than 50 degrees. Lazy plumbers have been known to instal the tempering valve without splitting the output line, so ALL the output water is cooled below 50 degrees. Have a close look at the connections to your hot water system.

For most instantaneous gas water heaters, be aware that the temperature limit is adjustable via a series of jumpers on the circuit board. Also be aware that it is illegal in Australia for non-authorised people to tamper with these, and accordingly information on doing so is somewhat restricted. But they are not so secretive in New Zealand- Google is your friend.

Lastly, be aware that there are a few models of storage hot water systems that come from the factory set to a lower (55 degrees) output- these are intended for direct connection to bathroom taps, but it one was used for the sole hot water supply, then occupants would be doomed to tepid water in the kitchen. If you are just getting a system replaced, you are entitled to get ‘like for like’, so the water should be no cooler than you had before.

On the original subject of the post- the Greens sometimes come out with these breathtaking bursts of daftness and ideological ‘purity’. Not content to let market forces and generous incentives work, they have to get the additional ideological purity that comes from banning things outright. I think there’s a Monty Python sketch in this somewhere, with a People’s Front for Renewable Energy etc …

Pandy said :

AG you are a bit wront. As has already been said on RiotACT, the 50 degree thing does not apply to laundries and kitchens.

Sort of – it’s 50 degrees for the whole house unless you pay for a bypass to the kitchen and laundry, isn’t it? I was quoted $350 to have that bypassing done.