Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!wmartin 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 References: <775@ut-sally.UUCP> <666@whuxlm.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: USAMC ALMSA Lines: 46 > 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 USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin or ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA