Hot Water Cylinder - Advice needed please

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snnet

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#2517090 4-Jul-2020 07:16

I personally steer clear of Rheem as I've experienced two of their units melting the plastic cover where the element is when the factory terminals aren't done properly - and calling them to report it results in a casual "yeah alright whatever we'll send someone at some point" - after two cylinders! This was admittedly about two years ago and perhaps fixed now, but could have had a fire if we didn't notice the melted cover (twice)

Kickinbac

468 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#2517188 4-Jul-2020 13:53

AklBen:
The previous owners of our house decided it was a great idea to install the hot water cylinders underneath the house and un-insulated. Under the house is not a basement, it's under the house on dirt...

I'd like to move to instant HW with LPG.

Question is, as there's a small HWC underneath the kitchen just for the kitchen, and the rest of the house is supplied by the larger HWC underneath the house at the back would there be much gain in removing that small one underneath the kitchen?

The benefit of leaving it would be keeping the incredibly hot and instant water in the kitchen. If the gas unit was placed at the rear of the house it's closer to the bathrooms meaning faster access to the hot water, but slow to the kitchen and vice versa.

I guess we could insulate that under-house small HWC - consumption from small HWC must be fairly low right?

It’s not uncommon to install hot water cylinders outside, its just that they need to be built for it. Usually they have a colorsteel case and weatherproof terminal boxes. If yours is under the house I’m assuming it’s well protected from the weather. A cylinder wrap will help with heat retention. Also insulate the pipes.
Is your main HWC a fair distance from your kitchen?

timmmay

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#2517252 4-Jul-2020 15:11

During a renovation we moved our hot water cylinder to the ceiling cavity. I put a wrap around it but it keeps coming off. Works great, frees up space inside to put in a larger cupboard.

AklBen

136 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 43

#2517274 4-Jul-2020 16:34

Kickinbac: It’s not uncommon to install hot water cylinders outside, its just that they need to be built for it. Usually they have a colorsteel case and weatherproof terminal boxes. If yours is under the house I’m assuming it’s well protected from the weather. A cylinder wrap will help with heat retention. Also insulate the pipes.
Is your main HWC a fair distance from your kitchen?

Yeah it's well protected from the weather, if we didn't want to move to gas HW we would insulate it and the pipes. Yep, it's at the other end of the house from the kitchen, but we have a secondary, small cylinder just for the kitchen but it's under the house too.

Main reason for the post was wondering about leaving that small one, while replacing the rest of the house's HW with a gas unit.

Buster

297 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 164

#2517282 4-Jul-2020 16:58

We replaced our 19.5 year old Rheem 180 litre mains pressure 3KW heater just before lockdown. It had started leaking.

Just replaced it with like for like (Vitreous Enamel) for $1410 installed.

Kickinbac

468 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 93

#2517283 4-Jul-2020 17:09

AklBen:
Kickinbac: It’s not uncommon to install hot water cylinders outside, its just that they need to be built for it. Usually they have a colorsteel case and weatherproof terminal boxes. If yours is under the house I’m assuming it’s well protected from the weather. A cylinder wrap will help with heat retention. Also insulate the pipes.
Is your main HWC a fair distance from your kitchen?

Yeah it's well protected from the weather, if we didn't want to move to gas HW we would insulate it and the pipes. Yep, it's at the other end of the house from the kitchen, but we have a secondary, small cylinder just for the kitchen but it's under the house too.

Main reason for the post was wondering about leaving that small one, while replacing the rest of the house's HW with a gas unit.

What are your thoughts around the environment / climate change? We are lucky in NZ that electricity is 80% renewable. Gas is not. With a HWC there are options for solar thermal, hot water heat pumps and even PV to offset electricity costs and can all be added later.

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AklBen

136 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 43

#2517285 4-Jul-2020 17:23

Kickinbac: What are your thoughts around the environment / climate change? We are lucky in NZ that electricity is 80% renewable. Gas is not. With a HWC there are options for solar thermal, hot water heat pumps and even PV to offset electricity costs and can all be added later.

More expensive and progressive options like solar etc. will be explored when I've got some more cash to splash on such things (and yes I care about climate change). For now it's out of the electric or gas options.

Also, the South Island and lower North Island are really the only areas that actually have a heavy balance towards renewable energy most of the time. Further north we rely on gas, coal and geothermal generation that essentially makes peak usage high in carbon emissions (especially in winter).

There are times when using your heat pump is worse than running a gas fireplace.

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