Eco friendly water heating for green homes


Water heating usually makes up about the third-highest energy consumption in American homes (after cooling and heating). In an extremely high-efficiency home, hot water heaters could be the single greatest energy consumer.

The most typical hot water heaters are storage models; water is heated by electric heating elements or gas combustion (or sometimes by oil), and also the water is kept hot in an insulated tank.

The performance of storage-type hot water heaters is decided largely by the quantity of insulation surrounding the tank, although with coal and oil models the combustion efficiency and also the heat exchanger configuration in the tank also affect performance.

With many storage-type hot water heaters, energy consumption could be reduced by wrapping the tank with additional insulation, although with combustion hot water heaters precautions should be followed.

In homes with baseboard hot-water heat or radiant-floor heat, exactly the same boiler that supplies heat may be used for water heating. The most typical method for carrying this out is really a tankless coil within the boiler. This option would be not advised, since the boiler needs to seriously whenever warm water is required; in summertime especially, this on-off cycling wastes energy. A better approach is definitely an indirect hot water heater.

With this particular option, warm water in the boiler is circulated via a heat exchanger in another, insulated storage tank. Water heater is treated like a separate zone. Thus, the boiler can be used in the summer to heat water, however it doesn't have in the future on every time warm water is drawn.

An alternative choice for water heating is definitely an instantaneous or demand hot water heater. These models, popular in Europe, switch on only if warm water is drawn.

Small electric models are occasionally employed for sinks, however for most residential applications, gas-fired models make probably the most sense, since they're better in a position to give you the quantity of warm water required for showering or clothes washing. Select a high-efficiency, electronic-ignition model that doesn't need a pilot light. A half-dozen manufacturers offer scalping strategies.

A level better selection for an environmentally friendly house is a solar hot water heater, which relies totally on solar power instead of electricity, gas, or oil.

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This article was sent to us by: Gary Adams at 04202011

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