Well N A, The Tankless Water Heater is the Bomb!

legallyflying said:

If you set this system up in a drain to waste configuration you will burn in hell.

It would be a criminal amount of water waste.

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Drain to waste is a hanging offense in my neck of the woods. Some areas water is plentiful.

I think NOT flushing the toilet when it's yellow would almost offset the usage.

I restricted the flow of mine on the return. I may have pumped a gallon or two per cycle, not DTW.

Also, the water is still good, capture it and use to do laundry, water your plants and landscape, etc....

If done responsibly, DTW could be an option for the short term, high heat months.

I should also ad that my experience with this is limited. I ran one for about a year. Had many of the issues with pressure but had mine working with the knobs set the lowest flow. I also used chilled 65f water so my pumps didn't fail. My system was controlled by turning the pump on and off as opposed to some of the hydrogen units that flow water all the time, and control through the DC input. I smoked my first co2 controller with the pump (they replaced it under warranty with a beefed up one).

So is it all Up and running now? Do you really have 100 temps? Too hot!

I'm running a tank right now but need gas in a 2nd room. Have 2 controllers and all the equip.
Just need to set it up. Made the first move, relocating my chiller downstairs and upsizing the Rez back to 100 gallons.

When I first setup my system, I bought into the 100 gallon pe 1k line. I soon found my water at 100+ but the room still perfect. It worked great! After a few days I started looking at the specs of the pump and saw 85f was it's max temp. So I started my quest into DIY chillers.

I wouldn't sweat the pump. Mine has been sitting in 100+ degree water for the last three months with no issues. Although it wasn't working the other day and after several WTFs! I found out that my rez was empty That's a hazard of having your rez buried under the deck.

On the Co2 I don't sweat it, but on my fresca sol lights things are a little more critical. I have a flow switch but i don;t trust it 100%. My room controller kills all heat producing appliances once the temp hits 95f for a bit of redundancy. So the chiller is more for the lights. If I didn't have the chiller I would likely just run a passive system like yours, just not buried. Mine worked very well with hot water.

You know I hang my pump off a bungee cord so it's just deep enough to function. This keeps 100 gallons from being pumped onto the floor should there ever be an issue.

good idea on the bungie, plus your decreasing head.

I thing the major draw back of hydro is that every once and awhile you end up with 40 gallons of water on the floor. Can't count how many times I have said..."ok, that hose is running, remeber that". onlly to come back an HOUR later to find shit floating.

Shop vac time.

A real bitch when your kit is upstairs over a well equipped office, of which the occupants are unaware of whats 3 ft above their heads! I've had the phone call:, "There's water dripping from something above our office, could it be the roof?", I'm waiting for the call about the sulpher smell everyfew days around 1:00! And by issue, I mean doing something stupid!

Budley my friend, you are playing with fire! The last thing you want is a big flood on top of strangers.

I juggle fire while eating glass with this setup. They are not total strangers, just aren't aware. A total catastrophe would just cost me in money. It's a real pain in the ass. I've taken one of the most simple and pure things, growing a plant and made it incredibly complex, difficult, expensive and at times dangerous! But hey I live in the desert and it's in an attic like space and is actually very stealthy. It also runs unattended all but 1 brief visit a day.

I got the pump with the higher head rating (but lower flow) that I posted in post #272. http://www.pumps-in-stock.com/little_giant_pump_pps-1.html

I set it up like this:



I primed the pump with the faucet, then inserted it like shown. I figure the hose between the barrel and pump will stay full of water while the inlet/outlet from the heater will level off with the barrel. Seems to be working fine so far. Loud as all hell though. Sounds like a damn lawn mower in my basement.

Still running good.

NICE! Mine has been giving me issues lately. sometimes it turns on, sometimes it doesn't. If I had to do it over I would have gotten a higher quality heater.

legallyflying said:

NICE! Mine has been giving me issues lately. sometimes it turns on, sometimes it doesn't. If I had to do it over I would have gotten a higher quality heater.

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that's been a pressure issue everytime in my experience. I wonder if you couldn't bypass the flow switch in these things, replace it with an external unit that doesn't require the pressure.

Just got my gas bill, $22.47. I'm sure that's not the whole month since it hasn't been on for an entire month. I don't do much cooking either. My water heater is gas though.

Just throwing it out there for informational purposes.

How much was it before? If it's anything like mine, the actual gas is the smallest charge, the rest is delivery, taxes and other charges.

Well I talked to the guy that sold it. I was having two issues: one, the water was too hot. There is an internal temp sensor on the outlet, above a certain temp it shuts off. I was also having a pressure issue. The el cheapo pumP has plenty of flow but not enough pressure. Flowing water will trigger the ignite button but won't trigger the gas to go.

I fixed the heat issue by adding two more 50 gallon barrels to the system...thanks for the idea!

I just ordered a shurflo water pump for $100. It's a non submersible self priming job. Super high quality. I just reviewed my gas purchase history. It's costing me around $8 month.

legallyflying ive been subbed for a bit just seting back n reading everyones post. thought id quit lurking n post a note. this is a killer set up you guys are dialing in. im planning on using one in the near future, and appreciate everyones trial n error runs, shortens the lurning curve for those of us just coming on board. was wondering how big of an area your system is covering? im sure its been posted just didnt see it. i guess if its a bigger area it will just run longer till the ppms are right... also how would you heat a hot tub, just run the recirk line into the pump on the tub? and if you did this how would it cool off before going back to the w/h? just a few things ive been wondering. the rest is preitty straight forward. keep up the good work everyone...

I have roughly 600 cubic feet of room. I have the heater turned way down for my little room. The Wh is controlled by a controller so your really just adjusting for accuracy and limit overshoot.

You found the chink in the hot tub plan. The water wouldn't cool coming back to the heater so eventually, the water would get too hot and the unit would shut down. Same goes for my plan to pipe it through a hydronic heating system for the first floor. Actually. I could still do that. Hot water from heater through hose tacked to basement ceiling...an then discharge to the outside Rez

Free radiant floor heating!

legallyflying said:

I have roughly 600 cubic feet of room. I have the heater turned way down for my little room. The Wh is controlled by a controller so your really just adjusting for accuracy and limit overshoot.

You found the chink in the hot tub plan. The water wouldn't cool coming back to the heater so eventually, the water would get too hot and the unit would shut down. Same goes for my plan to pipe it through a hydronic heating system for the first floor. Actually. I could still do that. Hot water from heater through hose tacked to basement ceiling...an then discharge to the outside Rez

Free radiant floor heating!

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thinking outside the box, if your return line went through a buried drum, or just a buried loop(long as it was long enough) before returning to the heater it would be cool enough. goes for tub or radient heat. could also warm up a greenhouse...can be lots of uses for heat

budleydoright said:

How much was it before? If it's anything like mine, the actual gas is the smallest charge, the rest is delivery, taxes and other charges.

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My gas bills:

7/20/11 $22.57
6/18/11 $20.57
5/19/11 $40.01
4/19/11 $80.22
3/24/11 $72.27

I just noticed that the most recent gas bill was dated 7/20/11, and I didn't have it up and running until 7/14/11, so I think the next gas bill will give more representative numbers of how much I use.