Tankless water heater question

[Joe]

Is there a way I can get my water heater from tripping my oil furnace to go on all night to keep the reserve tank hot? It's using up about

1.4 gallons a day this summer and all we use the hot water for is taking showers -about 1 per day, and washing dishes - every 3 days. I think it's using too much oil just to keep the water hot and I'd like to be able to have it turn off from 11pm to 6am every day so I don't waste so much oil while I sleep.

If I cannot do this myself who do I call to get it fixed. Will any furnace specialist be able to fix it or do I need to contact someone with experience with tankless systems?

Just for clarification my tankless system is not the square box on the wall, it's a mini tank connected to the furnace about the size of tank used to power your standard outdoor gas grill.

[unclemon]

What brand? Model number? I'm sure an expert on boilers would ask for more information. Oil fired boilers are rare here in the South East. We burn dinosaur farts around here. We even have companies that draw methane gas off of coal fields and land fills. Out of curiosity, what is the cost of heating oil in your realm?

[8~{} Uncle Monster

[RBM]

I suppose you could have a time clock installed on the boiler, to shut the entire system down during predetermined hours of the day or night. The problem with this approach, is that once the system is cold, it will have to run for a longer period each time it is fired, which may use the same amount of fuel as it does now. You could try turning down the boiler's high limit aquastat to 125 degrees for the summer, and see if that helps

[hallerb]

you might put a relay on the service switch. allow a low voltage wire to a swich upstairs for easy on off.

easy test for a couple days just flip the service switch to off. allow enough time to reheat stored water before showering etc.

[Joe]

Amtrol is the company and Extrol is the model and it says it's a "Hydronic Heating System". Is that the same as a tankless system? I paid $2.35/gallon last week to fill up my oil tank and I paid between $1.99 and $2.29 a gallon during the winter from a discount wholesaler. When I bought the house almost a year ago I was besieged with oil companies trying to get me to lock in and I resisted and was happy I did. The lock in price at the time was $2.62/gallon. Makes me wonder if I was just lucky last year or should never lock in a price.

Right now it's costing me about $100 a month for hot water and I'm wondering if it would be cheaper to have a conventional boiler installed that is on all the time but I have no way of knowing if it will use less energy. We do have a gas line on our street, my next door neighbor has one. I know it would be expensive to convert but I'm wondering if it would be cheaper in the long run.

[RBM]

Depending upon where you live, natural gas may not be cheaper even now. I believe, in the NE, oil has historically been cheaper. You might consider a small electric water heater for summer use only

[Joe]

Thanks I already lowered it to 120, the prior owner had it at 160 and the water was scalding but did come out hot much quicker. Now I have to run the water for about a minute to get it hot. Makes me wonder if the energy savings gets offset by the wasted water usage.

[RBM]

That is the question. There is definitely a point of diminishing returns. When you say you lowered to water temperature, was that on the boiler, or on the water heater?

[hallerb]

how about superinsulating the storage tank, thatr should reduce some standby loses

[Clark]

Joe wrote in news:1183902494.964272.274500 @d55g2000hsg.googlegroups.com:

Wow. One hundred a month for hot water is pricey. Even electric should be cheaper. Installation costs might be painful for either natural gas or electric water heater but it might pay out in a few years. It's hard to imagine that the hot water bill should be more than $50 per month so. I'd suggest calling some good HVAC contractors about your system, costs, and options. The modern crop of high efficiency (>90%) natural gas boilers can be real energy savers although they can be pricey (8 to 10K with domestic hot water) to install. Your utility may have rebates for installation of high efficiency boilers.

[Joe]

I don't believe there is a boiler, just a small water heater. There is only one option to lower the upper limit on temp.

[RBM]

The thing you are referring to as the "furnace" is the boiler. It probably has a Honeywell gray box on the front of it, above the oil burner. In that box is a high limit aquastat, probably set for 180 degrees. For the summer, you could try turning that one down to around 125

[Joe]

Sorry, I'm not really familiar with the difference between each. I thought the boiler was the thing that holds the water. Anyway, the aquastat is the box where I had already set the upper limit to 120. Looks like I'm going to need a visit from a professional. I'll look in the yellow pages for an HVAC contractor.