Yea so previously I was heating my hot water with a domestic hot water coil and tank off the back of my oil burning furnace. I did some research and really wanted to get away from that style system in preparation for my new furnace. I ordered the PowerStar AE125 tankless electric water heater and installed it all myself with a little help from my torch-wielding girlfriend. It took most of the day friday and when i turned the water on finally i found out from moving the old lines around it cracked the main cold line in the house … oh noes! I had to cut and replace a section of that … figures it happened to be the part with MOST of the connections. lol anyway here are some pics of what i did. The unit is mounted to my basement wall via 1 peice of 3/4"insulating foamboard under 3/4 treated plywood. Even though my basement doesn’t leak I wanted to go the safe route and try and protect the unit from water and also from freezing. After that I used 3 15’ runs of 8/2 cable for power and 3 seperate 40amp 240v breakers (yes it actually uses 120amps max!). I ran all my wires, did all the plumbing, then finally hooked the unit up inside the breaker box last. After the air was all bled i let it rip and took my first hot shower with the new unit. I’m pleased to say it gets hot enough for everything, but sometimes is tricky to regulate… not a big deal for the savings… the lights do dim just a tiny bit when the unit comes on even though i have the recommended 200amp service. Its definitely not as hot as my previous setup, but with oil prices i’m more than happy. Now we just have to see if it can pass the test of time.
Here’s the pics…
The unit and plumbing etc:
wires going into the box:
The breakers in the box:
the old tank:
Here’s where the old line broke and was replaced: (its the one to the right of the insulated one with all the fresh solder)
Overall it wasn’t that bad to do. You definitely learn a lot and get more handy with every project like this that you do. Definitely beats paying someone to do what you can on your own if you try!
wtf is a pv system? natural gas will be nicer than the electric … my uncle has one at his camp. gets much hotter. i have none of that available out where i live so i had to go electric.
I need to replace one of the tanks at my house. I’m definitely considering replacing it with a tankless water heater as well. I’ll be using a natural gas set up as well.
I’m not sure where he came up with that. From my understanding they always pushed exhaust gas out too. I never heard of producing power or anything like that in my years of working for Roland J Down.
ohhhh i looked into that and it seemed that the cost of the panels far outweighs any kind of benefit… something 200,000 for panels for my house and garage? woulda taken like 40 years to make it up ahha.
i would like to get a windmill out here though… i have plenty of room, and plenty of wind too!
Yeah wind turbine is probably your best bet out here. :lol My dad and I talked about installing one, but I think he wants me to make a solar hot water heater to aid the conventional electric water heater. Anyway, if you ever run into an issue with any of your house projects or need some kind of tool let me know, I’m “just down the road”.
trick setup man, my house came with a newer electric hotwater heater when i got it ( one of the things i actually did not have to replace,haha) Can the tankless keep up with your demand? and how much of an offset in energy are you using or not using?
i still have not came out to see you house in the 3-4 years you have had it! wtf
seriously! you need to get your ass out here! Now that you mention it, I haven’t been out to see your place either! I was heating the water before with my oil furnace so i would go through about a tank a summer on hot water which is like $800 - $1000 so this thing has already paid for itself. lol It can keep up, but you can only do one thing at a time… i was used to that anyway because its just a good habit when you have well water anyway. Showers are nice and hot for as long as you can stay in there, it can be interesting to regulate … its only my first few days with it though so i’m sure i’ll get used to it.
i just fired up my furnace the other night for a test run to make sure it was going to work right when the cold weather comes. I had to change the batterys in my programable thermostat, and i cleaned out the burner as a good precaution. I might change the filter on my 275 and change the line to a new plastic coated oil delivery line. Burner looked great and the optic eye and jet on it still looked awsome and i have a full 275, im ready for the cold weather. :banana
i just bled mine and got it all ready … even though its scheduled to be replaced end of this month with a Harman PB-105 Pellet Boiler… we’ll see. its all paid for i just don’t have it yet. Still going back and forth on it.
I guess they make pellet stove/boilers that can run off of pellets made from hay. Just buy the pellet machine and buy local mulch hay, and some kind of cheap additive (can’t remember the name) and make your own pellets. I was talking to my Dad about it awhile ago. It seemed like a good approach for people with land and someone that knows farmers.
Nice Install!
I installed a similar thing in my apt downstairs. There was no room in the basement for another hot water heater and/or a boiler and electric heat just sucks. See: Baxi Luna 310Fi
Does domestic hot water and hot water baseboard heat. We ran pex to the baseboards and used copper for the water. Its a little pricey to have repaired, but worth if you have no room.
It took most of the day friday and when i turned the water on finally i found out from moving the old lines around it cracked the main cold line in the house … oh noes! I had to cut and replace a section of that … figures it happened to be the part with MOST of the connections. lol anyway here are some pics of what i did. The unit is mounted to my basement wall via 1 peice of 3/4"insulating foamboard under 3/4 treated plywood. Even though my basement doesn’t leak I wanted to go the safe route and try and protect the unit from water and also from freezing. After that I used 3 15’ runs of 8/2 cable for power and 3 seperate 40amp 240v breakers (yes it actually uses 120amps max!). I ran all my wires, did all the plumbing, then finally hooked the unit up inside the breaker box last. After the air was all bled i let it rip and took my first hot shower with the new unit. I’m pleased to say it gets hot enough for everything, but sometimes is tricky to regulate… not a big deal for the savings… the lights do dim just a tiny bit when the unit comes on even though i have the recommended 200amp service. Its definitely not as hot as my previous setup, but with oil prices i’m more than happy. Now we just have to see if it can pass the test of time.
