<We Have Much Work to Do, People...The Oil DrumThursday open thread>

112 comments on Peak Oil and the Environment - last afternoon

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tate423 on May 11, 2006 - 11:58am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Check out the Rinai Tankless water heater.  No tanks, it just heats your water up as you use it.  Much more efficient and it qualifies for a tax credit.  They start at $600 and the top of the line is about $1200.  I don't know the details, but I've convinced my parents to include one in the house they are building.  On a micro scale, you will be more energy efficient.
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Donal on May 11, 2006 - 12:53pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Keep in mind that Rinnai and Rheem only make NG-fired units.  We're cancelling our gas service, and are looking at electric tankless units to use in conjunction with solar-heated water.
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tate423 on May 11, 2006 - 1:09pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Ok, but for the basis of heating water isn't NG much more efficient than electric?  I just read somewhere that NG costs are relatively fixed.  So the last quad of NG would take the same energy to extract as the preceding quad.  Electric, mostly coal powered, would be less energy efficient due to the increasing cost to extract.  Or am I off?
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Donal on May 11, 2006 - 3:53pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
You are probably correct, but we don't use the NG furnace anymore, so having NG service just for the water heater is too costly.  All the flat fees, taxes, surcharges, etc. add up.  

So we're switching from NG storage to Elec tankless.

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