Water heater

[clare]

Might be "code compliant" but still a very foolish installation.

[clare]

article,

It'll help a wee tiny bit keeping the floor warm - and MANY houses today the basement is finished, heated, living space.

[Robert Neville]

No, it isn't. "Code compliant" is another way of saying energy efficient.

Engineering a good house isn't just applying a few rules of thumb and calling it a day. In the case of a hot water heater, you need to look at the degree days for the location and decide if it makes sense to have the water heater located inside or outside of the thermal envelope.

In this case, we see far more "warm days" than we do "cold days", even with the extremes of temperatures. Given the price of electricity (used for cooling) and the price of propane (used for heating), it makes much more sense to have the heater located in the garage. Any ancillary heat loss serves to keep the insulated garage warmer in the winter and isn't fighting with the a/c in the summer.

The insulated tank itself isn't going to freeze - it's heated! The lines, correctly insulated and routed to the nearest insulated wall are likewise not going to freeze.

[Malcom "Mal" Reynolds]

All of the houses and some of the apartments I have lived in had the water heater located outside of the living space.

My only assertion was that of if it is an advantage in winter it is a disadvantage in the summer, and that hardly qualifies as an assumption

[krw]

Ours is in an unheated (and uninsulated) attic above the garage (a room that I'm currently finishing into a workshop).

[krw]

Wrong.

[clare]

Not necessarily - code compliant means it meets code - which is "safety" related.

Degree days do not mean a thing when you have extremes. It can go above 92F in the summer and down to -20F in the winter - both for days on end. The degree days can be the same as somewhere where it stays above 30F and below 80F year round. Different construction is required

- and definitely different plumbing practices.

Tell that to people who's pipes freeze on the outside wall of a heated interior space

[clare]

[e-mail]

article,

most part.

Mabee in Redneck USA - here in Canada it's games rooms, family rooms, bedrooms, home theatres,home offices - etc.

[Robert Neville]

Right... That would explain the presence of minimum insulation standards.

[Robert Green]

Agreed. What happens if you're away and the pilot light or auto igniter fails? Won't be long before that "heated" tank loses its stored heat energy and freezes, especially in the Great White Way where the thermometer often dips way below zero F.

I think it's funny that some people are convinced that nearly all water heaters are located outside the living space. I've lived in 10 different places in the NE United States and not ONE of them had a water heater outside the living space. That's a good reminder that local solutions are often not scalable to the whole wide world.

As for pilot light gas consumption we've discovered that it's very, very small and not worth it to go with an igniter because the water heater has heated our bedroom (gallon jugs) and bathroom (the tub) during some serious long power outtages during the 100 year blizzards we've been getting every

10 years nowadays!

-- Bobby G.