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Solar Water Heater and Tankless Update
Apr 21st
Solar Water Heater and Tankless
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One of our readers is working on installing a domestic solar hot water heater in conjunction with a tankless. They were going to go with a Rheem tankless to offset any additinonal temperature increase that was needed over the solar gains. Unfortunately they found out that the particular unit that they were planning on using senses the incoming water temperature, buy ‘ignores’ water that is within 40F of the target temp (ie. the unit won’t cut on to work). This has caused them some problems because:
1) The max output on any residential line is 120F (49C) (this is canadian law it cant be any hotter than this in a residential home).
2) If the solar heated water comes in at 100F (37C) or warmer, the unit will not kick on. This means the output is 37C, a cold shower to be sure.
3) If you go to the commerical unit, the max temp is 180F. This much too hot for residential use (think of someone turning on the hot water at the sink to do dishes), but it would work from the 40F differential standpoint (ie. if the water is 60C or colder, then the unit will fire, anything warmer than 60C doesn’t matter as it would be warm enough for a shower). Again this is illegal in Canada as the Max allowed Temperature is 120F.
The best solution is to more to a Rinnai Tankless water heater as this unit only requires there to be a 20 degree farenheight differentiation between water to be heated and heated water. Therfor your shower will at the very least be 100 degrees farenheight which is plenty warm enough.
These co-heating water heating systems are quite complicated so its important that you talk to a prefessional regarding any plans that you have for your home or cottage. Feel free to send us an email if you have any questions.
Condensing verses Non-Condensing Tankless
Mar 27th
Condensing verses Non-Condensing
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Tankless water heaters come in two different efficiency styles, condensing and non condensing. A condensing unit will recover more than 85% of the gas that a regular tankless water heater would otherwise vent out. Navien or “Navian” makes a tankless system that is 98% efficient by employing the condensing system. The high efficiency is gained by allowing the relatively warm exhaust gases to transfer otherwise wasted heat to the incoming water preheating it before flowing through the primary heat exchanger. This adds about a 10 to 15 percent efficiency increase to a tankless water heater which in itself is already quite efficient.
Now the grants that are available from the provincial and federal government are 
different for a condensing and non condensing tankless water heater. A condensing unit will receive $600 in total grants or $300 from each government level. The non condensing unit will net you $250 from provincial and federal netting $500 total. The governments trying to reduce energy consumption and pollution emissions would naturally give more grant money to tankless water heaters that are the most efficient.
Get Some Government Grant Money
Mar 25th
Tankless Government Grants
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Currently the Ontario and Canadian government are giving rebates to households in Ontario that upgrade 
their conventional water heaters to either a state or a tankless water heater (I realize that state tanks have not really been explained so I will make a point to do a synopsis on them this week). The provincial (Ontario) will give 250$ for any tankless water heater that is installed, the federal government will match that offer which totals the rebate to 500$. This is a good chunk off the purchase and installation of a tankless water heater. State tanks are eligible for 300$ from the federal government and another 300$ from the Ontario government totaling 600$.
Additionally if you live in the Enbridge territory they are offering 300$ off your gas bill for any new tankless 
water heater installation in your home. Enbridge’s territory consist of most of southern Ontario. Their service territory includes these cities referenced below and a number of others but it would be too long to list:
- Barrie
- Bolton
- Brampton
- Caledon
- Metro Toronto
- Mississauga
- Newmarket
- Richmond Hill
- Whitby
Ontario has a unique market where a significant portion of hot water tanks are rented. As the market for tankless hot water tanks begins to penetrate households there has become a 
strong demand for rental units for these systems as well. If you decide that renting is a better idea than outright purchasing you are still entitled to the rebates that are offered from both the government and from Enbridge.
There is a small catch though; to prove that you have upgraded you water heating system the Ontario government requires that a homeowner get an energy audit. This is a thorough evaluation of your home and its overall efficiency. Once the first audit is completed, you, the homeowner are sent the results of your audit (SAMPLE REPORT). Now that this is completed you have 18 months to make any renovations, or get your tankless hot water tank installed. After the renovations have been completed you need to get a second audit which will validate that all upgrades have been completed and grant cheques will be sent. Looking for an audit? we can put you in touch with a certified eco energy evaluation company. FIND OUT MORE
This is a bit of a complicated process but if you are looking to upgrade even a few things there are rebates from the Ontario government for almost anything that will make your home more energy efficient.
Fill out a quick form to get a price for a tankless water heater for your home FREE QUOTE
Renting a Tankless Water Heater
Mar 9th
Renting a Tankless Water Heater
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For a lot of people in Ontario renting your water heater is something you have always done, the charge is roughly between 10$ and 20$ a month. Companies that provide this service (for the most part) 
put in low end tanks so that their return on investment is only a few years. The problem is that low end tanks are energy hogs and consume copious amount of power. The company you rent it off of doesn’t care about efficiency as they are not paying the bills, thus the problem.
Renting a Tankless Water heater is going to be more expensive on a monthly basis but the savings it 
produces more than outweigh the additional cost. Remember a Tankless water heater is the top of the line water heating system, if it’s a Navien (or Navian which is often spelled incorrectly) you will be getting 98% efficiency. A Rinnai will produce great savings with lots of hot water and very reliable service. These units are the best there is for residential hot water demands.
The rental fees are almost identical from all companies that are offering rental tankless systems in Ontario and the greater Toronto area. On average you will be looking at between 32$ and 40$ per month for the rental water heater. You will also be getting the peace of mind that if anything goes wrong the unit will be replace or fixed.
The Tankless Hot Water Guide rents tankless water heaters if you are interested in renting a tankless system please fill out the form below and we will have a representative contact you.
Rheem Tankless water heaters
Feb 18th
Rheem Tankless water heaters
Follow this company back and it is basically leads you to the founder of the modern day water heater “Edwin Ruud”. There is definitely a lot of history here and the company has several locations throughout the world. Rheem is the largest manufacturer of water heating units in North America. Rheem has a number of residential tankless hot water units to suit the various home water demands
Rheem RTG2-42
This system is rated at 4.2 gallons with a 45 degree Fahrenheit temperature rise, it would best suited for smaller applications. Rheem suggests that this tankless be installed in homes with only one bathroom.
View Specifications Sheet – Click HERE
Rheem RTG-53 Series
There are 3 tankless systems in the 53 series but they’re all able to provide the same amount of hot water. Should you have a 45 Fahrenheit temperature rise this tankless would provide 5.3 gallons of hot water per minute. The difference in the three systems is the way they are vented; indoor direct vent, outdoor, and indoor power vent.
View Specifications Sheet – Click HERE
Rheem RTG-66 Series
There are 2 tankless systems in the 66 series, you can select either an outdoor model or the indoor direct vent. This tankless hot water heater is able to provide 6.6 gallons per minute at the standard 45 degree Fahrenheit temperature rise. This a new tankless series introduced by Rheem, they recommend these units for 2-3 bathroom homes.
View Specifications Sheet for the Rheem RTG-66 tankless – Click HERE
Rheem RTGL-74 Series
This series of tankless water heaters is recommended for homes with three plus bathrooms. There are 3 different venting options and thus 3 different models. The 74 series tankless can provide 7.4 gallons per minute of hot water with the 45 degree Fahrenheit temperature rise.
View Specifications Sheet for the Rheem RTGL-74 tankless – Click HERE
Notes
All of the aforementioned models can be equipped with up to 3 remote temperature controllers enabling you to change water temperature from any room.
These units are also expandable; Rheem offers what they call an easy link cable enabling two units to be connected together doubling the amount of hot water produced.
Rheem also has several commercial Tankless water heaters but that’s for another post.
Takagi Tankless Condensing Unit
Feb 9th
Takagi Tankless Condensing Unit
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The Takagi Flash T-H1 tankless water heater is a new condensing unit available to house hold consumers. 
This tankless heater has an average efficiency of 95% with propane as its fuel source and 92% when natural gas is used. In our Canadian climate you can expect about 4 plus gallons per minute in the dead of winter, and much more in the summer when ground water is warmer.
The Flash T-H1 is able to provide about 3 simultaneous showers when ground water is at or below 40 Fahrenheit. This tankless is unique in that it has two heat exchangers which enable the water passing through to absorb much (90 to 97 percent of it) of the heat generated from combustion. The stainless steel secondary heat exchanger has been added to collect waste heat from the units vent stack and divert it to pre-heating the incoming water. This secondary exchanger causes some condensation that is slightly acidic, Takagi has included a collector and a built in neutralizer that allows the drainage to be plumbed into your standard drainpipe.
This tankless water heater employs a variable gas input which allows the unit to produce only the amount of heat necessary to warm the water to a household’s desired temperature. At a maximum this tankless can produce 199,000 BTU’s per hour and in ideal conditions provide 10 gallons of hot water per minute.
There is a downside, the Takagi condensing tankless water heater is quite expensive, but it is one of the higher end units with a very high efficiency rating. Also unless you buy the Takagi temperature controller you are limited to only 4 preset temperatures, 113 F, 122 F, 140 F, and 182 F.
This is a very interesting system but we havent had any direct hands on experience to draw on yet. We should be getting a trial system soon at which point we will provide a new update and evaluation.
Navien Tankless Water Tank
Feb 4th
Navien Tankless Water Tank
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Firstly let’s get this straight; Navien is a brand of tankless hot water heater not Navian.I have seen this 
spelled wrong many times, Navian (I googled it) is nothing, definitely not a tankless water heater.
Navien has 6 residential models (CR-180, CR-210, CR-240, CR-180A, CR-210A, CR-240A) and then 3 commercial units (CC-180, CC-210, CC-240). These tankless water heaters are all relatively similarly designed but as you go up in model number you increase the amount of hot water the tankless unit can provide.Here is a quick list of each units performance.
- CR-180 and 180A are able to provide roughly 3.8 gallons per minute with a 77 degree F rise.
- CR-210 and 210A are able to provide roughly 4.5 gallons per minute with a 77 degree F rise
- CR-240 and 240A are able to provide roughly 5 gallons per minute with a 77 degree F rise
We should definitely look at the efficiency of the Navien tankless water heater which is currently the only condensing unit on the market.This extra step gives Navien the efficiency title, currently rated at 98%, therefore 98 cents of every dollar spent on heating your water is actually turned into hot water.This is an amazing number as most tankless water heaters are 10% to 15% less efficient. Of course being the first on the block has its issues, the Navien tankless water heater is facing some problems from rubber hoses becoming blocked. This has been reported numerous time in several forums around the internet.
The good thing is that most of the other Tankless water heater manufactures are working on their own form of tankless condensing units.This should give the consumer a good choice in high efficiency water heating.
CR-180, CR-180A……Specifications Sheet
CR-210, CR-210A…… Specifications Sheet
CR-240, CR-240A…….Specifications Sheet
Navien UPDATE-2010
This write up was done in February of 2009 so its been over a year now and there are a number of alternate condensing tankless water heaters available now. Navien was the first on the block and realistically you cant beat the price of the unit, even today its still lower than all condensing tankless units. Sure there has been some issues regarding the system but thats to be expected from a new technology (we will be authoring a new post on all these problems and their fix, check back soon).
Navien problems and the Fix – Click here to read
If your interested in a Navien tankless water heater fill out the form below and we will contact you, there’s no obligation and at the very least you will be more informed on whether a tankless is right for you or not.
Navien UPDATE – Feb 2012
Navien has spent a lot of time reworking their tankless water heaters and removing all the bugs and issues that have plagued them in the past. I feel more than confident in 2012 to recommend their new tankless water heaters.
Call Toll Free 1-855-696-8265 for any questions, issues, or for Navien prices. Otherwise feel free to send us a quick message with the form below.
Conventional Tank Thermal Images
Jan 30th
Hot Water Tank Thermal Images
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Here are some thermal shots of a conventional hot water tank, as you can see there is a lot of heat loss
occurring. Sure during the winter months this is probably not a very big deal as the heat leaks into the house. During the summer when you are paying copious amount of money to keep your house cool a conventional tank sits there 24 hours a day leaking heat, and costing money. Additionally if you can see the vent pipe coming off the tank it is quite warm, this is wasted heat and energy being directly 
vented outside. That is lost energy and money for you. A tankless water heater has a much higher efficiency rating which significantly reduces the amount of heat and energy vented out of the house. The increased efficiency also means that there is less heat escaping into your home during the cooling season.
More pictures to come soon.
If you are interested we can bring the thermal camera out on an in home consultation and you can see first hand why your conventional tank is one of the largest energy waters in your home. Fill out the simple inquiries form and we will contact you within 1 business day (please specify if you would like us to bring the thermal camera).
Rinnai R75i Specifications
Jan 26th
Rinnai R75i Specs
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- Natural Gas or Propane Gas Models
- 15,000 to 180,000 Btu
- 0.7 to 6.0 GPM (55 F rise) / 0.7 to 7.5 GPM (35 F rise)
- 98-140 Degree Settings or 98 – 185° F with (MCC-91 controller)
- Height 26″ Width 14″ Depth 10″
- No Pilot Light – Direct Electronic Ignition
- Maximum Hot Water Capacity – 7.5 GPM (multiple points of use)
- Newly Designed Commercial-Grade Heat Exchanger
- New Integrated Condensate Collector
- On-Board Diagnostics and Safety Monitoring
- EZ Connect (connects 2 units together without use of a control board
- High-Altitude Operation Up To 10,000 Feet Without Additional Parts
