Inline Hot Water Heaters
Many people have really started taking charge of the environment. With the threat of climate change, it is important to many across this country and the world that they do their part to reduce their carbon footprint. Anyone who owns their own home can do this in a really simple way.
Instead of wasting energy with a water heater that has a tank, try an inline hot water heater instead. Because they don’t require a big bulky water holding tank, you can place these units almost anywhere you need them, and often in very small spaces. This eliminates the need to place piping all over your house, and it limits the need for more than one line in most cases.
All you need is the one main water line, and you just split it where you need to put an in line water heater. If you don’t know how one works, it is pretty simple. The unit consists of a holding box, and the only external parts are the in and out ports for the water connections, and either a natural gas line, or an electrical cord. You of course have your thermostat, and settings regulator, but what you don’t have is a big tank of water.
Ironically, on the inside of the container are two coils. A larger one carries water from the input line, the cold water, and hot water comes out the other side. The other coil is the heating coil, which wraps around the water coil, heating it as it passes through. While you may thing this becomes an endless supply of water, it still is going to depend on your demand.
You can simply reduce or eliminate this problem in a couple of ways, and in combination. One of them is to simply install more than one unit, with a larger one close to where there will be a big demand, like a bathroom and laundry area. Another smaller unit could be connected in the kitchen area, to handle the dishwasher and any other kitchen uses. You can also replace many faucets and shower heads with low flow products, and often if you combine these together, you will have an endless supply of fresh hot water.
You can find many quality inline hot water heaters, Bosch, Noritz, and Paloma seem to be in the top five name brands today. Each has its own specialized features, and each range in price. You are going to have a little higher initial investment, but it will well pay for itself and you will see the savings right away in your next power bill.
If you are planning to live off the grid, and want to conserve energy wherever you can, an inline water heater is an ideal choice. Because it is strictly on demand, you won’t be constantly heating up a large quantity of water, no matter how small of a tank model you use. It only comes on when needed, and shuts off automatically when not in use. You can get one that runs on cheaper, more fuel-efficient natural gas, or an electrical model works really well with solar power grids.
For many who are really concerned about conservation usually use an inline hot water heater in conjunction with other energy saving ideas. Low flow showers and faucets, low flow, or even composting toilets. Many common appliances can be run from propane or natural gas, and it doesn’t take very much really to live off self-sustaining power.
