Propane Water Heater

hoping for your opinions.
i have propane,, for hot water heater, furnace, and cooking stove. ( I do have a LL pocono power vented.)

I pay 4 dollars a gallon for propane.-- I pay .14 cents ( after delivery charge etc etc the electric co charges) for a kilowat hour for electricity.
I've looked at these fuel calculators,, and am just wondering if switching from propane water heater to an electric would make sense.

also, right now the propane hot water heater uses the old furnace chimney ( new furnace is direct vent),, so it would free up the chimney so I could possibly add a hand fired..

what you think?
thank you.

Do you need the quicker recovery of a propane unit versus the electric? Do you experience many power outages?

If these issues are not a concern, I'd go with the most economical whichever that is. If I was to switch, I doubt I would spend money on the electric unit until the propane unit went bad though.

Don't know if this will help or not but I switched at least six months back & we haven't noticed much of an increase in our electric but the propain use has slowed more than expected. To be fair the AC has been on most days & my old propain HW tank had it's own power venter that naturally used electric. I went from a 40/gal propain to a 75/gal electric (special deal from power Co.) the new one is one of those all fiber-glass jobs that super insulated so I know that helps. I'm sure some #s guy will jump in on this & there are some plumbers as well.

The LL Pocono is propane?? You aren't currently using any coal at all? Where are you located?

First, reduce all your costs. $4 propane? I use these guys.

http://www.thriftypropane.com

CCW, how long have you been using them? I called then a few years back & they weren't delivering in this area yet & said they would call if they got enough customers around here & I never heard back. I was thinking of buying my own tank & then could use anyone but extra $ doesn't seem to exist anymore.

Here another option

http://water.nyle.com/residential/

olpanrider wrote:Here another option

http://water.nyle.com/residential/

That's a good idea.

I wonder if someone makes one that is tied into a houses central A/C for use in the summer months to get "free" hot water?

This would put most all the heat from your house in your water tank, and since you are running the A/C anyway and paying for the electric, why throw the heat outside and loose it?

And if your coal burner an water heater are near each other all the better

samhill wrote:CCW, how long have you been using them? I called then a few years back & they weren't delivering in this area yet & said they would call if they got enough customers around here & I never heard back. I was thinking of buying my own tank & then could use anyone but extra $ doesn't seem to exist anymore.

I watched their pricing and availability for a year, then have had them a year. They run a special at times- I pre-purchased 3 tanks and got the tank for free. They waived install fee, but I had to pay for new regulator.

I have 120gal tank. About to move grandparents to them on a leased tank basis.

They had plenty of supply last year

scalabro wrote:

olpanrider wrote:Here another option

http://water.nyle.com/residential/

That's a good idea.

I wonder if someone makes one that is tied into a houses central A/C for use in the summer months to get "free" hot water?

This would put most all the heat from your house in your water tank, and since you are running the A/C anyway and paying for the electric, why throw the heat outside and loose it?

That would be called a desuperheater, but that can only work on "water to water" geothermal...not "air to water" hot water HP or A/C unit.
The "air to water" hot water HP performs better in a warmer ambient surrounding temp. Absorbs the warmer air temp and then releases it into the tank of stored water.

If you are presently using propane for heat, hot water, and cooking, your price per gallon seems very high. How many gallons do you use per year? Regardless of the water heater, you should pressure the propane company to get that price down.

The other thing to consider is how much less propane you will be burning once the coal stove is running....at that point you won't have much leverage on the price. At .14/kwh a new electric water heater will be more economical than an old propane unit burning $4 gas.

Mc Giever,

Why exactly is that?

It could be done.

The condenser coils of an A/C unit would be inside my hot water tank presumably, or a heat exchanger that was a gas/liquid to liquid exchanger, instead of a gas/liquid to air, heat exchanger.

Essentially, the condenser unit would end up in the basement as part of your DHW heating device.

Again, why throw away all that heat coming off the condenser to the atmosphere, when it could be put in a DHW storage tank? Any excess could then be routed outside to a liquid to air exchanger.

Maybe one day soon they will use this stuff to squeeze out even more efficiency out of heat pumps;

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/130523-zeolite ... than-water

Thanks,
Scott

I was simply reporting what is done and what is not done to date.
Obviously the valving and HX's have to built in at factory in the first place.
Installers and field techs are reluctant to do these kind of modifications.

Geo are easier because of multiple reasons, one being they generally are contained in a single housing, unlike your split, 2 part A/C unit.

I cannot argue with your theory though.

Perhaps it's almost as easy as using one of the hybrid DWH heaters being discussed on this thread...

viewtopic.php?f=83&t=34399

Yes, you'll have to move the evaporator section of it to your A/C ducts, but as a prototype, most of the parts are off the shelf.