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Currently, most goverments are pushing for non electric systems and solar systems - hence the rebates. What are you're opinions on the different types of HWS.
You have the common HWS which is just a gas or electric system (with a storage tank), then there are instantaneous gas/electric systems (with no storage tank) and then there are Solar HWS which is gas/electric boosted (with a storage tank).
I am planning on building a house, but i dont know what the performance of these are like. Instantaneous sounds like a good option as you pay for what you use and there is no storage tank - hence unlimited hot water on the go. However, is this an expensive option in regards to the electric/gas bill?
Solar is a tempting option as well, however the downside is the huge upfront payment (Approx $5k). Many websites say Solar pays itself off over 3+ years, but what is the performance of it like? Is it worth paying for it now and enjoying the free solar energy down the track?
I've always lived in houses with standard gas hot water.... except this house is electric.
The house we are building will have gas boosted solar as standard. But I still would have picked this option if I'd had a choice... but haven't lived with it so can't give a true opinion yet.
Jo
_________________ I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself.
Joined: 26 Dec 2007 Posts: 4802 Location: South Australia
Quote:
Instantaneous sounds like a good option as you pay for what you use and there is no storage tank - hence unlimited hot water on the go. However, is this an expensive option in regards to the electric/gas bill?
My understanding is that it was less expensive to run as you don't pay for haveing water stored and kept hot. Also cheaper in the first place as unit does not have a large storage tank.
We currently have the traditional electric tank storage system (we have to have electric as we are not on mains gas) but in new house we will be haveing gas instantnaeous.
I would like to have a solar system with gas back up, may look into that in the futre when we have moved into house.
Joined: 27 Apr 2008 Posts: 7530 Location: SW Western Australia
previously we've always had gas instantaneous and it was fantastic but where we are not this wasn't an option except as lpg gas which our current rental has. It's pretty lousy at heating and expensive. We are going solar/electric boosted for the new build.
Joined: 20 Aug 2007 Posts: 4254 Location: Melbourne
In our last house we installed a Rinnai Infinity and we absolutely loved it!
When we built current house, the builder supplied a Chromogen unit which is gas boosted solar hot water....it has a 200lt tank...must say i'm not that wrapt in it, takes way too long to get hot water to the taps and it is fairly centrally located down the house. But hey it was standard.....
Joined: 02 Apr 2008 Posts: 1643 Location: North Shore, Sydney
I prefer the instantaneous gas systems. Unfortunately, due to all the new regulations, we can't have that. We are getting a gas boosted solar hot water system. Better not run out of bloody hot water!
We have an instant electric system and it is the worse piece of cr*p that we have ever had the mispleasure of using. We have been in our current house for 7 yrs, in that time we have have paid $1200 (not including labour)firstly for a part, then a whole unit. We were told that the units only last between 5-10yrs max. Apart from that we can have showers without using any cold water at all, even miss7 uses it that way...water is not hot enough to use the cold, esp in winter, and we will get 2 minutes of hot water, then 5 minutes of cold in the kitchen, so trying to fill up a sink with hot water is just impossible, I normally have to boil up water to use in the sink...or use luke warm water to wash (blah not my thing!)
In the house we are building we will be having a gas storage unit- Rheem. No solar booster, but its something we will look at in the future. Have never used a storage unit before and am unsure if the one we are getting is even going to be big enough for us. Oh well I am just glad that we will eventually have something better than what we have now.
Joined: 10 Mar 2008 Posts: 117 Location: Far North QLD
monkeyupatree wrote:
We have an instant electric system and it is the worse piece of cr*p that we have ever had the mispleasure of using. We have been in our current house for 7 yrs, in that time we have have paid $1200 (not including labour)firstly for a part, then a whole unit. We were told that the units only last between 5-10yrs max. Apart from that we can have showers without using any cold water at all, even miss7 uses it that way...water is not hot enough to use the cold, esp in winter, and we will get 2 minutes of hot water, then 5 minutes of cold in the kitchen, so trying to fill up a sink with hot water is just impossible, I normally have to boil up water to use in the sink...or use luke warm water to wash (blah not my thing!)
what was the size of tank ? what tariff was it on ?
Joined: 24 May 2008 Posts: 373 Location: pilbara, wa
People with instantaneous gas, do you find you can't use water saving shower heads?
We have instantaneous gas and i changes the shower head to water saver, and lost the hot water!!, changed it back, was all good. Now our hws is really old and i want to upgrade it, but i have been told you can't use water saver shower heads with instantaneous.
Joined: 27 Apr 2008 Posts: 7530 Location: SW Western Australia
mel you can't use the usual basic ones but there are some ones that are built for instantaneous systems.
I've seen them promoting water saving stuff in shopping centres here. You know those mobile display sellers. and there are a couple they had. Of course they were more expensive than the basic water saver shower heads. sorry I don'tremember the brand names.
Joined: 06 Oct 2008 Posts: 10 Location: Alexnadria, NSW
We have recently designed most houses using gas continuous solar hot water system and no complaint so far. The secret is to make sure that the system matches the solar zoning of your suburb and that the tank size is sufficient to cater for number of occupants. Also remember to check their "recs" value for rebate
We installed a rinnai 26 lpg instant with controllers , and we use a water saver shower without any trouble . I think one of the best things about the instant gas is the dial a temperature , press 42 degrees and that is what you get all the time every time , and the water is raised to the temp you select , where storage units raise it to a greater temp than you need then you add cold to the hot water to get the temp you need ,
cheers AP
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