Water Heater ??

Water Heater ??'s

I've decided on the K.I.S.S. principle and am gonna skip over tankless all together.

What are some good water heaters to look at, <$500, 60 gal or LESS

In doing research, it seems gas heaters are cheaper to operate than electric so I need to vent this thing. I have a chimney that has never been used, and has a couple of metal circular covers over what I assume is an opening (naturally )

But, would I need a power vent? The flue would have to make a 90-degree turn into the chimney..

the other option (which I like better, is to put it in the same area as my furnace and close it off as a utility room (open basement)

However, the furnace has a PVC exhaust (90+ efficient unit) that vents horizontally and the air intake doesn't go anywhere.. just a 12" section of PVC. Does the water heater require outside air? Should I vent the furnace to the outside??

power vent

if you are going to move your water heater next tothe furnace and it

already has a 90% efficinet pvc line going out of the house

it would probably just be better to put in the power vent

and take another 2 inch pvc line out next to where the funrace goes out.



a Bradford white 50 gal gas power vent is gonna cost you around $675

There are some very specific requirements on power vents. Be careful of the requirements on vent separation. If these don't get combustion air from outside, ensure you have proper air supply.

jadnashua said:

There are some very specific requirements on power vents. Be careful of the requirements on vent separation. If these don't get combustion air from outside, ensure you have proper air supply.

Click to expand...

Which brands of water heaters have inlets for combustion air piping? Most direct vents I see seem to grab air from under the unit. I have plenty of room to maintain 6ft of seperation between exhaust & inlet.

How about using 4" pipe as a trunk vent, and plumbing both the water heater and the furnace into it?

Don't know of any tank-type closed combustion WH's. Especially with both the furnace and WH in the same room, abide by the fresh air requirments. They are something like 1 sq in for each 1K BTU. Keep in mind that the gas dryer may be on the same floor. You want to have enough fresh air available so that you don't either make CO or pull in air through every crack in the house where you don't want it. Ideally, you duct it in so you aren't polluting all of your condtioned living space.

One reason I didn't try a tankless WH is that I couldn't conveniently put in vents to the outside (other than the exhaust). Some of them are near 200KBTU, that's about a 14" square hole to the outside. WIthout the proper makeup air, you compromise the entire conditioned space...if you've got a good inspector, he'll call you on it.

jadnashua said:

Don't know of any tank-type closed combustion WH's. Especially with both the furnace and WH in the same room, abide by the fresh air requirments. They are something like 1 sq in for each 1K BTU. Keep in mind that the gas dryer may be on the same floor. You want to have enough fresh air available so that you don't either make CO or pull in air through every crack in the house where you don't want it. Ideally, you duct it in so you aren't polluting all of your condtioned living space.

One reason I didn't try a tankless WH is that I couldn't conveniently put in vents to the outside (other than the exhaust). Some of them are near 200KBTU, that's about a 14" square hole to the outside. WIthout the proper makeup air, you compromise the entire conditioned space...if you've got a good inspector, he'll call you on it.

Click to expand...

Ok, lets take a step back and look at flue systems instead..

can I have bends in a flue system or does it have to be 100% unconditionally straight up? I do have a chimney downstairs.

The furnace is 40,000BTU/hr so I imagine the water heater is gonna trump it in the BTU/hr range.

If I install by the chimney, the furnace will be approx. 12 feet from the furnace, and 18 feet from the main gas meter.

Thanks,

Rocky