William Couture wrote:
> My wife has decided that we should get a tankless hot water heater to
> save energy.

I'm not sure they save energy.  I can see some reasons they might take more=
,
but other reasons they might take less.  The main selling point as I
understand it is that hot water is always available.  You never run out.

> They are fairly uncommon in the USA, but fairly common in the rest of
> the world.

They are fairly popular in new construction around here.  My house came wit=
h
such a system, and it was built in 1985.

> Does anyone on the list have any experiences they could share with me?
>
> We are looking at the Navien CR-180A (this one includes a small, 1
> gallon holding tank as a buffer) and the Noritz NR83-DVC.  Any
> personal experience with either of these?  Also, the Noritz is a new
> model.  If you have experience with an older model that would also be
> helpful.

I know nothing about that model.  Our unit is a Wyle McClain, but I don't
know the model off the top of my head.

All I can say is that the system seems to work.

We have pretty acidic water, and at one point added a downflow neutralizer
to the water feed right after the pressure tank.  This is just a tank with =
a
bed with small limestone gravel in it.  The acid eventually eats away the
limestone, but of course loses some of the corrosiveness in the process.
You periodically add more limestone gravel.

This worked fine for a while, and other things were not being corroded
anymore.  However, solubility of the calcium carbonate goes down as
temperature goes up.  This meant that it came out of solution and got
deposited inside the hot water heating coil.  Eventually it clogged up and
was replaced.

I'm only pointing this out to beware that instant hot water and some kinds
of water treatment might have unexpected side effects.

--=20
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