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    "Smart" Hot Water Heater

    It seems it won't be long before I need to replace my hot water heater. Does anyone have experience with smart ones that can be controlled by HS?

    #2
    You didn't specify the fuel source, electric or gas.

    My advice, go tankless. Had to replace both big gas hot water heater and a separate cast iron heating boiler after Sandy, with one combo tankless unit. Reclaimed a load of space in my utility closet and my gas bills were reduced by more than 50%.

    With a tankless setup one doesn't have to worry about controlling it since you're not wasting energy constantly heating water until it's actually needed.

    Comment


      #3
      TC1 Thanks. I have gas now but I also own my solar panel system so I could go either way, electric or gas.

      The problem (I think) with tankless for me is that it's a 60' run from where the heater is in the garage to the furthest bathroom. I solved the problem by putting in a hot water return line, a small pump and a Qubino relay with a temp sensor. At specified hours HS turns the pump on and circulates hot water. The water gets returned to the hot water tank through a "T" connection at the drain so I don't even waste any water. It also turns on in the middle of the night when one of us walks into the bathroom. By the time you finish your business, the water at the sink is nice and warm. This system works phenomenally well.

      With a tankless system my Rube Goldberg hot water recirc would be out the window and it's something that's become part of our HA expectations and WAF is very high with this. Not sure if there's a place on a tankless system that's the equivalent of a drain on a regular hot water tank..

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        #4
        A little googling reveals plenty of solutions for tankless. Some tankless units have the recirculation function built-in already.

        Tankless Recirculation Accessories | Rinnai

        After living with a traditional water heater tank for decades, I'll never go back. It's ancient technology that rusts and corrodes, wasted energy keeping the tank warm/hot, has to be replaced every 8 or 10 years, etc. The cost savings from going tankless simply astounded me.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by racerfern View Post
          TC1 Thanks. I have gas now but I also own my solar panel system so I could go either way, electric or gas.

          The problem (I think) with tankless for me is that it's a 60' run from where the heater is in the garage to the furthest bathroom. I solved the problem by putting in a hot water return line, a small pump and a Qubino relay with a temp sensor. At specified hours HS turns the pump on and circulates hot water. The water gets returned to the hot water tank through a "T" connection at the drain so I don't even waste any water. It also turns on in the middle of the night when one of us walks into the bathroom. By the time you finish your business, the water at the sink is nice and warm. This system works phenomenally well.

          With a tankless system my Rube Goldberg hot water recirc would be out the window and it's something that's become part of our HA expectations and WAF is very high with this. Not sure if there's a place on a tankless system that's the equivalent of a drain on a regular hot water tank..
          I have 2 tankless water heaters here at home and a tank WH at a weekend home. While I generally prefer the tankless, each has it's plusses and minuses. That said, recirculation is viable with both types. Google "tankless water heater recirculation system".
          -Wade

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            #6
            Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions. Research, research, research.

            Comment


              #7
              I have a Rennai tankless that I installed myself (except for the gas line) a few months ago. It comes with a little wall-mount thermostat that has a LED when it is running, so I'd like to use a HomeSeer Flex sensor to monitor the LED and track runtime in Grafana. I have it on my list to do, but never enough time
              HS4Pro on a Raspberry Pi4
              54 Z-Wave Nodes / 21 Zigbee Devices / 108 Events / 767 Devices
              Plugins: Z-Wave / Zigbee Plus / EasyTrigger / AK Weather / OMNI

              HSTouch Clients: 1 Android

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by rmasonjr View Post
                I have a Rennai tankless that I installed myself (except for the gas line) a few months ago. It comes with a little wall-mount thermostat that has a LED when it is running, so I'd like to use a HomeSeer Flex sensor to monitor the LED and track runtime in Grafana. I have it on my list to do, but never enough time
                More than likely, you can install a WiFi module on your unit and access status:
                control·r™ App | Rinnai

                Comment


                  #9
                  I've got an 18-year-old Rennai still going strong, knock-on wood... Bought another one for the garage/bonus room but haven't gone live with it just yet. Didn't realize they integrated the new ones with an app, somebody with the skills needs to integrate it with HS. I agree long runs for tankless can be less than ideal, instead of putting in a recirculating value I went with a Bosch electric mini tank under the sink in the kitchen (my only run we had problems with).

                  Don't forget to flush your tankless periodically.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I have a question. Unlike most recirc systems my return line Ts at the furthest point but doesn't return via the cold water like nearly all the systems I've seen. It returns the "lukewarm" water to a T at the drain line of the bottom of my tank.

                    My question is, with a "conventional" recirc when you turn on the cold water, isn't it unusually warm at times due to being the return?

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by racerfern View Post
                      I have a question. Unlike most recirc systems my return line Ts at the furthest point but doesn't return via the cold water like nearly all the systems I've seen. It returns the "lukewarm" water to a T at the drain line of the bottom of my tank.

                      My question is, with a "conventional" recirc when you turn on the cold water, isn't it unusually warm at times due to being the return?
                      They can be but the idea with those is that hot is used much more frequently than cold.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by racerfern View Post
                        I have a question. Unlike most recirc systems my return line Ts at the furthest point but doesn't return via the cold water like nearly all the systems I've seen. It returns the "lukewarm" water to a T at the drain line of the bottom of my tank.

                        My question is, with a "conventional" recirc when you turn on the cold water, isn't it unusually warm at times due to being the return?
                        If you have a dedicated return line you actually have an advantage most people don't, a dedicated line is the standard/right way to do it.

                        With a recirc that shares the cold-water line what happens is that once a cold-water faucet valve is opened the pressure on the cold-water line quickly overrides the pressure from the recirculation. Cold water will come out at the same rate as normally flushing the line.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          It seems AO Smith has a technology they call ICOMM that connects through their app. Rheem has Econet. I’d love to use HS to toggle on/off vacation mode. It would determine which brand I buy if one worked with HS. In my case I’m looking at the hybrid models.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by jono View Post
                            It seems AO Smith has a technology they call ICOMM that connects through their app. Rheem has Econet. I’d love to use HS to toggle on/off vacation mode. It would determine which brand I buy if one worked with HS. In my case I’m looking at the hybrid models.
                            It really has nothing to do with HS, it's dependent on whether the manufacturer provides an API for their product. If an API exists, then more than likely HS can interface with it via different protocols provided by different plug-ins.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by TC1 View Post

                              It really has nothing to do with HS, it's dependent on whether the manufacturer provides an API for their product. If an API exists, then more than likely HS can interface with it via different protocols provided by different plug-ins.
                              Understood, but if someone has made one of them work already I'd be eager to follow them down that path.

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