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From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: Info on hot water heater gizmo?
Message-ID: <7998@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 4-Feb-85 16:49:39 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.7998
Posted: Mon Feb  4 16:49:39 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Feb-85 08:43:01 EST
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> Incidentally, I spent a few years in Europe and another common method
> used the same idea of heating only on demand, but it used gas!  There was
> a large (2 feet by 3 feet by 1 foot) nest of water pipes above the tub.
> When you turned on the water, a giant gas flame came on (with a WHOOSH!)
> and heated the pipes.  Worked well, but the water was excruciatingly
> hot, so care was necessary.
> 
> Mike Gray, BTL, WH

For what it's worth, this is not a newfangled invention, brought on
by the energy crisis. This was the standard type of water heater from
75 or so years ago. My grandparent's house (which I subsequently owned
for a while) had these, and they were replaced with tank-type (ordinary)
water heaters during the 50's.

The key here is the amount of water used for showers and automatic
washing machines. If you don't have a shower (this house, and many
older unremodeled houses, didn't), you can run your bath with water
that is too hot at first but that cools off, and end with an average
temperature tub of water that is fine for a bath. When you have a
shower, you have to keep a constant temperature, neither scalding nor
cold. The in-line water heater units don't do well on this.

Same for washing machines. It doesn't matter too much if you use a
wringer washer and laundry tubs; you adjust the temperature the same as
a bath. However, earlier automatic washers (which did not use cold
water only for rinsing, and couldn't, due to the detergents of the
time) needed a more constant flow of even-tempered water.

Flash or in-line heaters are often used as backups in solar hot-water
installations (an example of this was in the first of this season's
"This Old House" PBS TV series renovations, if you saw that); you 
have a reserve tank of solar-heated water and the in-line heater takes
care of the times you run out or for exceptionally cloudy periods. The
tank acts as a buffer. 

Just having flash or in-line water heaters is feasible in certain
special circumstances, or in limited usage. But the tank-type heater
has advantages for most normal households.

There is nothing new under the sun...

Regards,
Will Martin

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