The tankless instant hot water heater is on the left,
with the solar water heater technologies and tank on the right.
This Fall, my husband and I took a trip up to Oberlin, Ohio to visit a passive solar house designed by Don Watson, FAIA. Watson is an architect who, with honors from the AIA, has been designing passive solar homes for several decades. I was initially interested in going to the home for its passive solar qualities since these types of homes are yet to be fully discovered and integrated into society at large. I, obviously, write a lot about sustainability so I thought it would be worth the 2.5 hour trip from Columbus.
For Green Building Insider this month, I wrote an article regarding the innovative use of two technologies incorporated at the home to heat the water supply for showers, dishwasher use, faucets, etc.
Typically, a sustainable home these days will at least include a tankless instant water heater... though many mechanics are still skeptical and perhaps scared to install them in residences, their reliability and ratings are nothing but augmenting in the public eye. Rather than keeping a continuously heated resevoir of water in a conventional hot water tank, the tankless instant water heater warms water only when the house function's demand hot water. Powerful heating coils warm the water as it passes over them and is then directed to its point-of-use location.
At this home, called Trail Magic, Don Watson incorporated a solar water heater in tandem with the tankless instant water heater. The solar water heater then raises the water from ground temperature of 40 degrees to 80 degrees and keeps it in a water storage tank. The tankless instant water heater only has to heat the water up from 80 to 110... further saving carbon-based energy.
Carl McDaniel, the owner of the home and Visiting Professor at Oberlin College in the Environmental Studies, keeps accurate records of the functions of these two systems and how they provide water in a highly efficient manner. McDaniel states that in the middle of the day, the solar water heater actually raises the water up to 110... so he decides to take showers in the middle of the day. The tankless instant hot water heater will only come on if the water is below 110 degrees... so in the afternoon, he may take a shower with just the solar heated source. That is a concept referred to as "intelligent use."
check out the article at www.greenbuildinginsider.com
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