Comments on: Got Hot H2O

By: The Wild Dog

The Wild Dog — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:18:10 +0000

This was a great review. I would love to see pics of the plumbing set up if possible :-) I plan to use this unit to heat my water in my mobile kitchen. Since I’m going totally off grid and not using any energy except for propane I love this concept. The health dept won’t let me run my copper water lines thru my heating flames to heat the water, so this is the cheapest alternative out there. Price is great. Any problems with this unit ? I noticed this post was from early 2009?

Thank you !

By: Off-Grid.Net » Winter’s coming, get ready now - Off-Grid – life unplugged: solar, wind, hydro, architecture, smallholdings, free stuff

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:51:00 +0000

[...] that same package we got another on demand, propane fired water heater. It’s always good to have a backup of anything that is necessary, or at least a major [...]

By: Wretha

Wretha — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:19:48 +0000

Oops, I forgot to add how our system works.

We have the 300 gallon water tank sitting on the deck just outside the kitchen wall, a hose goes from the tank, through the wall, to a 12 volt water pump (salvaged from a travel trailer), next to a splitter (1 hose into 2 hoses), one goes to the cold water side of my sink, the other goes to the on demand water heater, then from there to the hot water side of the tap on the sink. Somewhere in there, we change from hose to pvc pipe. It all works great, the biggest drawback is the noise the 12 volt water pump makes, we are working on making it quieter.

By: Wretha

Wretha — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:00:03 +0000

Erron, thanks for writing, and good for you for taking the steps to protect yourself and your family. We do have running water, it just doesn’t come from a municipal source. Right now, for our domestic use (washing and drinking) we just have the 300 gallon tank on the deck just outside the kitchen wall, we fill it from our neighbor’s well, though we could also get our water from the community well or have it delivered (from the same source).

Tell your wife not to worry, you can have all the hot water you want (as long as your propane and water supply hold out), all you need is the on demand propane water heater, and your water supply. In our primitive cabin, when I turn on the hot water tap, I get hot water, faster than I did when I lived in a regular house with a 40 gallon water heater that was halfway across the house from me. :)

We are lined up to get a 1550 gallon water tank, that will mean much more freedom for us, if something were to happen to our access to the neighbor’s well, we would need a larger water container in order to get water delivery or for us to get our own water.

By: Erron

Erron — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:39:40 +0000

Hello! I haven’t read your entire blog yet, but I have a plan in place to go off the grid soon with my wife. Hot water is a big issue with her, and this seems liek the best option. Not havig running water, how do you tap into your water source to use this? Is it just connected tot he 300 gallon tank you have? Thanks!

By: Wretha

Wretha — Wed, 27 May 2009 00:47:33 +0000

Heather, you have 3 choices right now if you want an on-demand water heater, natural gas, propane or electric. For off grid living, you can forget about natural gas. Electric takes a LOT of electricity, though it should be possible to do. The best option is propane, honestly it doesn’t take much propane, at least for us that is the case.

Your other option is solar heating, it is very much do-able, it just takes a bit of planning ahead.

Thanks for writing! :)
Wretha

By: heather

heather — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:50:17 +0000

i have been looking into this as well… any other information on off the grid would be welcomed! i was hopeful that propane would not be needed for an on demand h20 heater, but it appears so…
thanks so much!