My HWT is about to die. I’ll be replacing it myself because I’m a man, but national fuel offers a $150 rebate for an efficient tank water heater and $350 for a tankless. The catch is you have to have it installed by a contractor?
I think it’s the same for tax rebates.
Anybody ever find a workaround for this? I’m perfectly fine with it being illegal. :tup:
Draw up an invoice from Jim’s Handyman Services for (1) HWT install.
Gotta provide some identifying digits. It’s tied into the nyserda program. They probably check.
You could find a person who owns a contractor’s business and ask them nicely for $50 to type up a written reciept/estimate. Someone like my father, perhaps. :snky:
Hmmmmm…
When you do replace it, I heard if you make the HWT have a small gas leak, it heats the water quicker…
So I noticed a thread a month ago asking about tankless hot water heaters, and since I’m new in the Hvac field I didn’t provide any input but after working on one and talking to a co worker they are a pain in the butt when you need to service them, very complex compared to the old hot water tank system. Take longer to fix due to this and might cost more to fix, more things that could fail, my co-worker advises against them.
First, you don’t heat hot water.
Second, tankless water heaters are fantastic when properly setup in the correct application. You get what you pay for as far as quality and reliability, just like everything else.
Thanks for the correction
If you have ever worked on one you know they aren’t as easy to work on compared to the older style. If you have to pay for someone to work on it it can quickly add up and take the savings away, although that is what I heard from a co worker, I forget the brand that we worked on, we had to replace the manifold and its a cluster fuck of wires in a very small cabinet. Had to take everything apart to get to manifold and it seemed like in order to service anything on it, it would be a nightmare.
Maybe other brands are better, this is just what I have experienced the couple times I’ve worked on them so take it with a grain of salt if you like. My co worker has years of experience and he hates them for the reasons listed above.
Yeah, you’re the first one to think of this. I went through this recently. I bought a tankless unit through my buddies account at VP Supply and we put it in. I went to send in the rebate and they wanted a copy of the invoice, business certificate, reciept for the unit, and something else. I said fuck it as I made out great buying it at his cost and doing it on a Sunday.
You were most likely working on some pile of shit Rheem one that was purchased at Home Depot Also, the early units that came to market were pretty problematic.
My Navien is reliable as all hell. If it ever breaks, it’s kind of like a car… the error code shows up on the screen and you replace the part. Parts range from $0.27 to $200. It’s pretty much plug n play.
Does GI require a building permit to swap a hot water heater like Amherst? If so, don’t put the old one out to the curb. Several people have told me Amherst checks on garbage day and if they see a hot water heater at an address with no permit on file you’re busted. When I replace mine the old would will be going to my mom’s for garbage day since her town doesn’t do that bullshit.
Hmmm indeed… Thanks for the, ah, advice guys. 
That’s OK that’s what I do for a living. I’m a fucking ninja with a multimeter.
Any recommendations?
Navien eh? I’ll look into that.
Baha that blows. I’ll do the same thing I did with my last one. Put it at the curb saturday morning with an ad on craigslist for free scrap water tank. Gone within half an hour.
I think I’ll wind up with another powervent tank. To go tankless it would be +$400 for the heater, +300 for the vent piping, + I’m pretty sure I’ll have to replace a significant amount of 1/2" piping with 3/4". I could replace what I’ve got for about $900, but to go tankless it’s quickly closing in on $2k.
we spec naviens for smaller projects at work quite a bit, theyre pretty nice. if youre refering to the supply piping to the fixtures needing to be bumped up for the tankless, thats not the case. sizing is still the same. they do work better with a good return loop, but thats with any kind of water heater. your gas supply size may change though.
as for vent piping, even the high effiency tanked heaters may require direct vent, not sure if you are aware or not but keep it in mind when picking out a new one.
I’ll look into that brand then.
Yeah I meant the gas supply. Looks like they’re typically 3/4" for a home unit and I’m pretty sure it’s 1/2" over to my heater now. That wouldn’t be the end of the world since it’s a straight shot from the furnace over to the HWT and dryer, but just the icing on the cake if it’s already twice the price.
I have a powervent now so a blower pushes the vent gas through PVC out the side of the house and will have to stay that way. DV requires a chimney so that’s not an option for me.
My Navien dumps out the side of the house via a 6" PVC pipe/vent located next to my dryer vent. No biggie.
The 3/4" is easy. You can use flex line(it’s code) and 2 unions and bam, done. I also threw a new box by the unit so it plugs in right there. If you are planning on staying, I HIGHLY suggest tankless. I swear, the more I ask of it, the better it works. Nothing like running the dishwasher, doing all the whites on the hot cycle, both the slam piece and slam piece junior taking back to back showers in water so hot that you could throw a lobster in and have a delicious dinner, and not even thinking “Is there enough hot water for me to shower now?”
A 6" vent? Which model did you go with? Mine is a 3" vented right next to the HE furnace vent.
Navien NR Series. Maybe it’s 3" to the outside vent? All I know is the pipe that sticks out from my siding is probably atleast 5 or 6" in diameter. Maybe I’m just high at the current moment.
That’s what I went with also. I think you may be a bit high also as I can not think of a reason why it would come off the unit at 3" and then someone decided to step it up to 5-6". I mean, someone could have in theory, but it makes no logical sense. It would be like driving a car with a 1 7/8" exhaust and throwing on a 4" tip for better flow.
Well I’ll look into it. You never know, but I’m planning on this being a 10+ year house. Could be worth the extra coin, especially if it saves on utility bills.
I’ll do some googling myself, but where did you guys buy your Naviens?
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Hm. Looks like two hookups on top of the Naviens. External combustion air?
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Wait, woah. PVC venting? Why no expensive ass double walled steel?
Looks like it a lot of these have dual PVC vents. Well this is a new development since the last time I shopped for a new water heater. Nice.