In our area of so cal, gas water heaters with SWH last as long as fifteen years no problem, and 20+ years is not uncommon - w/o anode rode redo. But the ODWHs with which I am familiar usually need de-liming (service call) about every five years. I do not have much data with ODWH with solar back-up, yet. The larger the family in both cases, the faster the failure. ODWH manus seem to be claiming that the savings of standby heat loss is 15% minimum, but if your heat loss is from standing solar heated water (which entered the tank when somebody last used the hot water) and you have set the outlep temp of the solar 15% higher than that of the old fashioned water heater, your heat loss is from solar heated water. The irony about _endless_ hot water is this - most of the people who have installed an instantaneous heater that is unassisted by solar will actually have higher gas bills, specially if there are any teenagers in the house. Patrick A. Redgate AMECO Solar, Inc. Serving Solar California Since 1974 7623 Somerset, Blvd. Paramount, CA 90723 562-633-4400
_www.solarexpert.com_ (http://www.solarexpert.com/) _www.amecosolar.com_ (http://www.amecosolar.com/) In a message dated 9/17/2010 9:36:59 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, toddc...@finestplanet.com writes: "repairable unit - you don't have to trash it every seven years (reported national average)" My tank is 20 years old now. I change the anode every 3 years. Todd Sent from Finest Planet WebMail. _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Options & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
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