A water heater question

I know this question has probably been hashed and re-hashed a few times. But i don't remember seeing it recently. Suppose you want to use TWO water heaters to try and keep up with a house full of shower loving girls. Would having them in parallel or series (plumbing wise) be the best way? I can see where there could be advantages both ways.

steve barker

Reply to
S. Barker
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At a time like this where we are being exhorted to save energy, shame on you for even thinking about wasting still more. Take command of the situation and replace and downsize your present water heater for the bath only and set the temp control to 120 degrees. Then plumb the original water heater exclusively to laundry and kitchen. It will soon be obvious to the sauna lovers that the there is a limited supply. After a few weeks there will be some habits change. Been there, done that, raised five daughters. Good luck and be a diplomat.

Joe

Reply to
Joe

We have some larger buildings rented as student housing. Basically they were originally mansions, and they have 7-14 students living in them (3 buildings, different sizes). We like the idea of using pairs of water heaters in parallel to serve the buildings. In addition, we have extra plumbing and valves which allow us to isolate either heater in the event of a problem. This gives us a redundancy and limited hot water in the event of a failure. We could also run the house off one heater at a time, like in summer, when there are only a few students living in each building.

We had thought that running them in series would be a good idea, where one acts as a pre-heater for the other, but this doesn't really increase the capacity very much, but should boost the recovery rate quite a bit.

JK

Reply to
Big_Jake

Thanks for the reply.

steve

Reply to
S. Barker

Here's a couple links that discuss both methods:

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Reply to
SRN

Try this......it may be enormously less expensive.

1) Install a whole house pressure reducing valve 2) Set it to about 55psi 3) Install low flow (1.5 gph) shower heads 4) Monitor the length of showers taken if needed Bubba
Reply to
Bubba

Take command of the situation and replace and downsize your present water heater for the bath only and set the temp control to 120 degrees. Then plumb the original water heater exclusively to laundry and kitchen. It will soon be obvious to the sauna lovers that the there is a limited supply. After a few weeks there will be some habits change. Been there, done that, raised five daughters. Good luck and be a diplomat.

Joe

You have some good points. My daughter took incredibly long showers but I'd turn off the hot water after 15 minutes, then 10 minutes. She eventually found out that you don't need such a long and costly shower. It was not just the cost, but the time while others waited to shower too.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

THANKS!

s
Reply to
S. Barker

I will reduce pressure to 75 if it's over that. I will not install lo flo shower heads. I HATE those. We once lived in a mobile home (a hundred years ago) that was fed with a 3/8 line. No thanks. I like LOTS and LOTS of water. I will not monitor my tennants shower time.

(but thanks for your input)

s

Reply to
S. Barker

Why not install an on-demand water heater (Tankless)? The initial cost may be higher, but you will save by not having to keep two tanks hot during non-use periods.

Reply to
John Grabowski

Reply to
Bubba

that seems a bit over kill... and the tennant will be my son and his 5 kids and the wife unit.

s
Reply to
S. Barker

I considered those for my own place but after much research.... NO THANK YOU. Not near hot enough when the input water is 38 degrees.

s

Reply to
S. Barker

Lots of answers but not much directly at your question. I would think series would be the best way. In Parallel for some unknown reason one might draw out first.

If your water is very cold the first one could be used to raise the temperture part way, perhaps turned off during the summer.

Reply to
Rich256

Perhaps, but what if the on demand "tankless" heater was placed near the appliance using the water and piped from the household hot water line, well... or, the tankless heater dumping into the main hot water heater? Then the tankless would be preheating the water going into the main tank, that should do it.

Reply to
Jackson

The earlier post from SRN with links pretty much covered this. You need to make sure that your supply and return lines are the same length for both heaters, and they must be of the same capacity. The equal length supply and return lines are easily accomplished by putting tees in the right spot of both. This will keep one heater from running out before the other.

Running is series will likely give you "steps". You run the first one out, then the water will be pretty much coming out at whatever the other heater is set at. It would make no sense to have them set at the same temps in series, as the second one would rarely run.

Also covered in the link was that you need to resist the urge to shut one heater off when they are in parallel, even at times of lower demand, since stagnant warm water in the unused tank could grow some pretty bad microbes.

JK

Reply to
Big_Jake

ya, and they cost 5 times as much as the second tank. Believe me, i've researched the tankless farce far more than i wanted to. I'll not have one.

s
Reply to
S. Barker

Thanks for your reply, Rich. I'm leaning towards the series setup if i go with two tanks.

s

Lots of answers but not much directly at your question. I would think series would be the best way. In Parallel for some unknown reason one might draw out first.

If your water is very cold the first one could be used to raise the temperture part way, perhaps turned off during the summer.

Reply to
S. Barker

Were you looking at electric or gas/propane tankless units?

Reply to
Jackson

Gas, the electric ones seem to be even more worthless.

s
Reply to
S. Barker

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