Browse Forums Building A New House Re: has anybody upgraded theri hot water tank with PD? 2Dec 02, 2008 12:33 pm Hi nh
I upgraded mine to the 215lt tank - which includes 2 solar panels rather than 1. I am building the Cremorne a 42 square home and thought it was necessary Cost was around $700 Cheers My karma ran over your dogma Re: has anybody upgraded theri hot water tank with PD? 3Dec 02, 2008 1:06 pm thanks Bel,
i was thinking of that too, how about energy wise? say, if in summer with good sunshine weather, it saves our energy bill by using solar? and in winter or days wihtout much sunshine, we use gas heated water? so our hot water bill will mianly comes from winter days, with a bigger tanks, it will still okay is this correct understanding? (forgive my naiveness ) nh Re: has anybody upgraded theri hot water tank with PD? 4Dec 02, 2008 1:14 pm I'm not that bright with this stuff either - but yes I'm pretty sure you are correct.
On days when their is adequate sunshine you will get your hot water for free, otherwise it will use the gas booster to heat the water if sunlight isn't available. So you are likely to save some money when the sunshine is out I have never had solar hot water before so cant comment on how efficient they are - hoping they are ok though My karma ran over your dogma Re: has anybody upgraded theri hot water tank with PD? 5Dec 02, 2008 1:20 pm They benifits of solar hot water is that they use less energy to heat water to the required temp.
The principle is like this. It takes more energy to heat water from 19 degrees to 50 degrees for example. If you can raise the inital temp of the water to 29 degrees then the additional energy required to heat it to 50 degrees will be much less. So I believe in winter it still has benifits but not as much. Which is probably obvious. Re: has anybody upgraded theri hot water tank with PD? 6Dec 02, 2008 1:25 pm thanks, Borg and Bel
that seems to be the logic. so now it comes down to "700 bucks" decion. hey, Bel, were you able to take your contract home rathern than signing it on spot? nh Re: has anybody upgraded theri hot water tank with PD? 7Dec 02, 2008 1:30 pm Yes, but only because we had 'issues' where my husband couldn't make it and we needed his signature on it - I returned it the next day.
If you wanted to take it home, perhaps one of you should miss the contract meeting and then you will have to bring it home My karma ran over your dogma Re: has anybody upgraded theri hot water tank with PD? 8Dec 02, 2008 1:40 pm hey, bel
you are right, DH is really busy recently and crack at having to go to electrical this Friday and colour before that. he might miss the colour as well and then can just turn up for the electrical - i would not have much idea about electrical. i found not letting people takign home and have a thought about it quite amusing - as if they are afraid you are going to leave them. also not fair that we have to make decisions on spot. nh Re: has anybody upgraded theri hot water tank with PD? 9Dec 02, 2008 1:46 pm anyone considered the instantaneous range? e.g. a DUX endurance. We are going with that, takes up much less room as well. The amount of energy it takes to make a solar panel is more than what the thing outputs over its lifetime. I think they are marketed to be Green but in fact no so Green.
Luckily we changed the solar to the above, just read this from the department of environment and Climate for NSW rebates: Hot water systems installed to comply with BASIX (the Building Sustainability Index) for new homes and major renovations are not eligible for a rebate Re: has anybody upgraded theri hot water tank with PD? 10Dec 02, 2008 1:47 pm Just say that your DH has work commitments that he can't get out of and you don't want to delay contract - see what they say, my CSC was very accomodating
I didn't hand over the cheque until we had both signed either My karma ran over your dogma Re: has anybody upgraded theri hot water tank with PD? 11Dec 02, 2008 1:53 pm right, he is. i am not good at making immediate decisions.
Hey, MadCow, you are probaly right, if it's instantaneous, it consumes energy when you need, is that right? but seems to be every household has a hot water system, not many people use instantaneous ones, wonder why nh Re: has anybody upgraded theri hot water tank with PD? 12Dec 02, 2008 2:01 pm yes thats right, it heats up when you need it, it is 5 star efficient. I am not sure why people aren't going for that.
We are paying $490 as an upgrade to whatever came with the standard, i think it was a 150/170L gas. It is much better than the $3400 upgrade to a solar panel + gas boosted from the standard. It was a easy decision for us $$ plus saving the planet. Madcow Re: has anybody upgraded theri hot water tank with PD? 13Dec 02, 2008 2:44 pm Go for the instantaneous gas hot water if you can. The Rinnai ones are great. You never run out of hot water, and you only pay to heat what you use, rather than what you store. I wanted one of them, but because of the BASIX in NSW, I was not allowed to get one - has to be solar on new buildings.
Judie Re: has anybody upgraded theri hot water tank with PD? 16Dec 02, 2008 3:10 pm MadCow Judie, really? it is certain councils? surely doesn't apply to all of NSW. I don't see all new buildings going up with solar panels in the north west. MadCow Absolutely not, there are plenty of initiatives for solar in NSW (eg. Blacktown council's Solar City initiative) but you don't have to have solar panels to pass BASIX you are just given monetary incentive to put them on your house. We were told on the weekend about an added feature of the instant gas hot water service which you can put into your house. I forget what it's called but it's a button which, when pressed, takes a minute to circulate the water in the pipes back through the IHS so that it's heated up when you turn on the tap. No more wasting water waiting for it to heat up! That's also something that will give extra BASIX points. Costs about $750 to add it I think. What you have to remember about instantaneous hot water services is that sure, the water is heated instantly but it takes time get through the pipes, it's not instant to the tap. The little button I mentioned is the only way to get it straight to the tap without wasting any water. Every single project builder that I know of in NSW use instantaneous gas hot water services....ok maybe not every one but quite a lot. edit: this from the BASIX web site Quote: What is the most efficient hot water system to install? The most efficient individual hot water system to install is solar. A solar system with a high REC rating (see RECs) will give the best BASIX score. Solar (gas boosted) will usually outperform solar (electric boost). After this, select either high efficiency gas (instantaneous or storage) or an electric heat pump hot water system to achieve a high BASIX score. For gas systems, the higher the gas star rating the more efficient the hot water system. Stevep79 & Principessa Finished building Wisdom Homes Impression 33mkII in The Ponds, Sydney http://lilypadintheponds.blogspot.com Re: has anybody upgraded theri hot water tank with PD? 17Dec 02, 2008 3:44 pm nh, from memory, the standard one is not adequate for the house size - esp the Brookvale!!! We upgraded, but I can't remember the details (it was a long time ago now.......!!!) Solidarity, not solidity.......The Lexicon of Life Re: has anybody upgraded theri hot water tank with PD? 19Dec 02, 2008 5:18 pm 5 star energy rating usually requires an either/or deal with rainwater tank and solar hot water. At least that was my understanding when we were making the decisions. I know orientation, siting and size of windows, building materials etc, etc all come into it too.
We got the tank included in our standard price, but added solar hot water as well. And if you can get it for $700, go for it - ours cost over $4000! The solar system we have came with two panels as standard, and an instantaneous gas booster. So you can't possibly run out of hot water, plus you don't pay for heating most of what you use. At least not as you go...we paid plenty up front. From what I know about water tanks (I've been working with a client on them for a few years now) is this - The concrete can last a lifetime if they don't crack for some… 2 10638 If you can calculate the reasonable charged head from let's say 100mm below the gutter to the top of where the vertical riser's horizontal discharge pipe will be, that… 11 17536 Building Standards; Getting It Right! Thank you for the generous offer. I need to get the plumber out to give me an explanation. As mentioned I haven't seen any rain water discharge from pipes 1& 3. It… 7 10827 |