Rebekah and Fellow Wrenches,
None of the Big 5 _manufacturers_ of tankless water heaters are
currently manufacturing natural draft tankless water heaters. Paloma
stopped their production several years ago and the then, sole provider
of natural draft machines-Bosch has earlier this year stopped production
of all it's natural draft models.
Chances are you can still locate units in the system today but all of
the Big 5 natural draft machines are today - out of production.
If by trustworthy you mean reliable, then you should not use hydro
generated units in the same sentence as reliable or cost effective.
There might be other manufacturers beyond the Big 5 (Bosch, Noritz,
Paloma, Rinnai and Takagi) out there but you might want to talk to Ian
W. about his success with a natural draft "off-brand". When you have the
choice to use a standing pilot model, that is your most reliable and
long term low cost/expense leader. If you are really serious about
energy conservation you might follow the rest of world lead and use the
included piezo igniter every time you wanted hot water and save even the
pilot gas when you were not using hot water.
Credit myopic/marketing driven energy efficiency rules with part of this
demise and an industry that fits in well in a capitalist society with
the remainder.
Read Tom Lane's article
http://solarindustrymag.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.15632
in the current issue of Solar Industry Magazine regarding the current
status of the solar thermal industry and his suggestions for alternatives.
Sabine and I, in the '80's switched an electric tank in an all electric
condo daily for over eight years and never had to even replace the
breaker. In a gas storage tank water heater, rotating the gas valve
between pilot and on accomplishes almost the same effect of using the
storage tank as a batch heater.
Best wishes,
--
Bill Loesch
Solar 1 - Saint Louis Solar
314 631 1094
On 9/3/2015 10:06 AM, Rebekah Hren wrote:
Hi Wrenches,
Any suggestions for trustworthy:
-propane tankless water heater
- draft-vented
-battery (or hydro) ignition with no electrical hookups
It seems to be a lot harder to find tankless water heaters which do
not have a 120VAC power supply these days. It's not a big power draw,
but it is a phantom load for off-grid and I'm not sure it's a great
idea to manually switch the tank power supply on/off several times day?
Thanks!
Rebekah Hren
--
Tel: 336.266.8800
NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installation Professional™ 091209-85
NC Licensed Electrical Contractor
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