Hot Water Systems

Hi Perry, I'm really new here but I thought I might chime in since I love our instant hot water system.

We replaced a regular, electric storage system around 6 years ago and have never looked back.... I love being able to program the bathroom temperature and the kitchen temperature at different levels - its also nice to just turn on the tap and have the exact temperature I want.....

Our electric bill also went down considerably when we switched over (we also switched over to a gas oven at the same time so the savings would have been for both of them) and our gas bill whilst it increased is still cheaper than the electricty one was before the switch....

Fiona

Hello,
We have purchased 400L solar hot water system for 4500 all together. We had the same system in the old house and we have never used electricity during 3 years we lived with it.

In QLD as far as I know you can only have gas system or heat pump in new house from last year. Our builder offered us a heat pump but we wanted to be green... for the environment

In January we have received a certificate for sustanaible house together with $500. We spent a lot of money for energy and water saving devices and this was good decision. Dont go for gas if you don't have a supply of a gas in your area otherwise you will start paying to much.

Kate

Solar and instant gas combo! I like that idea. I'd assume that there's a storage tank , as well as the instatnt system - I'll check it out!

Thanks everyone.
perry

yeah, good luck with PD - had our stuff out last night - the upgrades they offered us were a bigger storage (aquamax) and a Rinnai Infinity! So will be interested to see if they will do one of those for you!

Here's something which Porter Davis may go along with - it's the Rinnai Infinity with solar boost, and has the tank on the ground so the roof doesn't need any additional strenghening.

http://www.rinnai.com.au/solar/typesyst ... =home&pg=0

nice! Anyone happen to have one of these babies?

I haven't been quoted as yet - we have our tender appointment tomorrow (Monday) so I'll be asking them.

One of the problems associated with going with a large company is that they can be very inflexible - so they may not even want to come to the party with this.

More info tomorrow!
Perry

Hi all,

Ok, here's the results of our meeting yesterday with PD. The site costs are discussed in other threads, or you read about them on the blog (probably tomorrow, when I get a chance to update it!).

The hot water service offered as standard is a storage system (Rheem) 135 litre. That's included in the house price.

I asked about the upgrade to solar. In particular I was interested in the Rheem gas boosted solar system, which has the tank on the ground instead of the roof. "Yep - no problem" says the consultant....

Him: "$4000".
Me: "Yikes! Is it f*n gold plated?"

You get the general drift. There is another option that PD offer - the solar gas boosted system meets the 5 star energy requirements, without the need for a water tank for flushing dunnies - so if you delete the water tank and include the solar system, it's a $1600 upgrade.

In the end, given that our site costs have blown out by $9k, we decided to go with the Rheem Infinity 26, with two temperature controllers, and keep the water tank (which we think is important).

The cost to us of upgrading the 135 litre job to the Infinity 26 is still around the $1600 mark.

There's no doubt that the prices that these builders charge for such upgrades is high, however everyone makes their own decision in the end!

Thanks to everyone for their input - as you can see, we listened to your recommendations.
Cheers
Perry