Hot water systems!

Faye · **Posted:** Wed Mar 06, 2013 7:08 pm

Can anyone please help me sort through the mine field of hot water systems to choose from.
I am pretty sure that whatever we decide on will be more energy efficient than the 125 litre Rheem electric hot water system. I have been quoted on a brand called Conergy - we are wondering if a 300 litre tank is sufficent for 5 people who are not water conscious when it comes to showers :swing:

Naughty!
We are looking at costs between $3000 - $3500, so I want to be making the right choice.
We are also in a frost prone area, which can be an issue.

Does the tank have to be on the north facing roof - one company said west is fine because the panels are black they absorb the heat, but I do wonder.
The other company says that there is not really enough room to place the tank above the solar panels that are already there, because it may flatten the ridge cappping. The tank would be placed between the supports which is also not ideal, they suggest the tank on the ground option eg split system. We then have the option to upgrade to a 400 litre tank, but I'm wondering if we really need that as we expect the adult children will want to leave home soon, one has gone, two to go.

What systems do you all have?

oldute · **Posted:** Wed Mar 06, 2013 7:39 pm

I the house before the one I'm in now we had a Rinnai infinity instantaneous gas hot water system installed. It was fantastic. No storage, just heats when you turm the tap on and never runs out. The beauty about it was that it didn't matter what taps in the house were turned on or off when you were in the shower the water stayed the exact same temperature. It had a digital panel to set the temperature and when you had a shower you didn't even need to use the cold water. Perfect temperature every time. Couldn't work out why everyone doesn't use them, then we shifted to a place with no town gas and had to have a solar hot water with a gas booster. They are supposed to be cheap to run as it only fires up when you use it. I remember when we installed it it was fairly cheap compared to others. If you're not on bottles I'd recommend looking at those.

Faye · **Posted:** Wed Mar 06, 2013 10:57 pm

We are on bottled gas and no scheme water Oldute

Snags · **Joined:** Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:52 pm **Posts:** 234

I have had 2 rinnai infintys and loved them had an electric and hated it and now have an Apricus evacuated tube solar and it is fantastic
Free hot water
I have it connected to off peak power but have only turned it on for less than a week over 2 years during a few continuous days of overcast cold weather.

My mate has an infinty and based on 9 kilo bottles of gas it costs about 80 cents a shower which isnt cheap
You cant get big bottles without a rental plan so it works out cheaper to get 9s

seamonkey · **Posted:** Thu Mar 07, 2013 1:26 am

And as for the five un waterwise people in the household, ensure you put in a coin operated system. There go the huge bills :joy:

Simo · **Posted:** Thu Mar 07, 2013 10:32 am

This probably won't help much but I was looking at swapping out our storage hot water system for a roof mounted solar hot water system and even with government rebates it was more cost effective to get extra solar panels added to my existing solar electric system. Half the price of the solar HWS bought enough solar panels to cover the electricity useage of the storage HWS, and the fully price of the solar HWS bought enough solar panels to make my household electricity bill free :joy:

I feels solar hot water sytems are well over priced but I guess they sell them on the basis that customers are getting "free" hot water.

Disclaimer: my calculations are based on the fact that my storage HWS is relatively new and has plenty of life left in it, I only set the water temp to 60C and I installed the solar electric system under the old electricity buy back tariff which is much higher then they are offering today. If my storage HWS stopped working I woul probably get a roof mount solar HWS.

Snags · **Joined:** Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:52 pm **Posts:** 234

I got the panels and the evacuated tubes total cost for the 2 was about $4,500 Heaps of rebates then for both state and fed)
Power bill was nearly $300 a quarter now is about $80 a quarter (44cent feed in tariff)
Payback is 5 ish years for both

Another good solution would be PV panels and a
heat pump hottie
http://www.enviro-friendly.com/heat-pum ... tems.shtml

Less plumbing costs if you install it where the old one was.
Solar on roof needs more pipes and if the tank is up there too it needs engineering of roof to carry the weight.
My solar system is a split system,but still needed copper and insulation from roof to tank on the ground..

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