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

The room i'm in is about 10'x16' with 8' ceilings. The walls are slanted because it's an upstairs bedroom, so I probably have 1000 cubic ft. I have 3 tents all 4'x4' running in the room. My pump goes on for about 3 minutes every 15-20 minutes.

guy incognito said:

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.

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so it looks like it will go up about 10 bucks a month. Heck of a lot cheaper than a bottle in a room that size.

How much of a humidity bump do you guys see in after a burn?

budleydoright said:

so it looks like it will go up about 10 bucks a month. Heck of a lot cheaper than a bottle in a room that size.

How much of a humidity bump do you guys see in after a burn?

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No idea. I have a dehumidifier running 24/7 and draining to my basement. All I worry about now is watering and trimming.

guy incognito said:

The room i'm in is about 10'x16' with 8' ceilings. The walls are slanted because it's an upstairs bedroom, so I probably have 1000 cubic ft. I have 3 tents all 4'x4' running in the room. My pump goes on for about 3 minutes every 15-20 minutes.

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im looking to run about the same as the 3 tent area, 8x10 with a 2x4 drying cabinet. do you do the whole room or circulate through the tents.

whole room no way to manage individual tents...

guess that was a self explanitory question lol as i shuffle off mumbling to myself

4tatude said:

im looking to run about the same as the 3 tent area, 8x10 with a 2x4 drying cabinet. do you do the whole room or circulate through the tents.

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I have a cardboard box set up behind the tents with my carbon filter inside it, and 4" ducting coming from the top of each tent into the box. Air goes tent -> 4" ducting -> large box under negative pressure -> carbon filter -> 6" centrifugal fan -> then exhausts into the room behind the tents. I leave it running 24/7 to get constant airflow and take care of the smell. There seems to be no difference in air quality between inside the tents and inside the room because it gets exchanged so fast.

legallyflying said:

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!

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I, too, was worried about heat buildup in the barrels. It seemed to me, at first glance, that there wouldn't be enough surface area presented to the earth for heat dissipation.

I wonder if a below grade loop of a couple hundred feet of irrigation tubing between the water heater and the barrel might help. Glad to hear that you fixed it with more water.

I'm looking forward to the winter..... I'm into week 8, things are ripening up nicely and it waas 102f last night night on the outside of my kit. 75 in. Always a bit nervous at this stage.

4tatude said:

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

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The buried loop idea could be extremely effective if the logistics could be worked out (how to assure that it NEVAR! ruptrures).

edit: if buried below the frost line, I don't think you'd need more than 100' of loop to keep temps manageable. Especially if it then empties into the barrel.

There are calculators online to figure it out. The cheapest pipe is going to be the 1/2" irrigation tube. I would think 100' minimum. I'm going to attach that tubing to the bottom of the first floor sheeting in the basement to reduce heating costs in the winter. Also venting lights into heating ducts.

BTW, the new shureflow pump works awesome and IMO is THE pump. Small, self priming, 3.4 gpm, and up to 50psi! $95. Would actually work money in a high preside mister set up.

Well my pump shit out. It's not pumping and it's real hot, but the water is cool. Also my rubber hose is falling apart. Does bleach destroy rubber?! It looks like it does.

:angry:

The rubber impeller inside the pump was ripped and jamming it up. Replaced it with one of the 2 replacements that came with the pump and it's running fine. I guess I need to drain out the barrel and put fresh water in with no bleach. What do you guys use to control microbial growth if not bleach?

prestone

guy incognito said:

The rubber impeller inside the pump was ripped and jamming it up. Replaced it with one of the 2 replacements that came with the pump and it's running fine. I guess I need to drain out the barrel and put fresh water in with no bleach. What do you guys use to control microbial growth if not bleach?

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you should only need a 10% bleach solution im thinking, that should not hurt lines...

there ya go lumi, long as its in a contained loop no harm

4tatude said:

you should only need a 10% bleach solution im thinking, that should not hurt lines...

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It was far less than 10%. It's a 55 gallon barrel and I only put about half a gallon of bleach in, and that was like 3 weeks ago when I set it up. Haven't touched it since.

I would just use chlorine for pools.

I put a lot less bleach in my rez than 1/2 gallon. I use about a cup per 80 gallons every week or 2. My water stays below 75 tough. I also run a UV light in my pond pump.

guy incognito said:

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.

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Just got my latest gas bill, $22.37. Seems like it has nearly negligible costs, less than $10/mo. Close to $3/mo. Unless there is something i'm not factoring in here, but it's still 2 people living in the house and we didn't run any heat during june or beyond. Maybe we are using the oven and stove less because it's been so hot, but I think the water heater just uses almost no gas at all.