Hot water heater question.

Hey guys. I am building a new one story home in Florida with a nice size garage for my toys and storage area above. As this is my first opportunity at using natural gas vs. electric for appliances I have a question. My house plans call for the water heater to be in the garage and subject to all kinds of fumes and flamable liquids from my toys and gas cans. My wife is concerned that I might blow us up with having the gas water heater in the garage. As best I can tell code requires the unit be 18" above the floor and vented through the roof.

Is there a safety issue I should worry about? I want a tanked unit and the only other options are tankless on the outside (expensive) and/or back to an electric one.

 

Can't you go electric or is natural gas your only choice?

 

Regardless, blowing up the house won't be any more likely if your water heater is located in the garage or a basement/utility room. If you go natural gas, a power vent would be best as it'll vent via PVC through your roof versus b vent. The exhaust venting out is much cooler than a standard natural gas on a power vent.

Carbon monoxide detector is something I'd recommend unless you go electric.

Food for thought: electric water heaters work fine and are very quiet. A power vent unit makes kind of a lot of noise. At least for a water heater......and they are pricey.

I see you chimed in on the "ask a plumber" thread, hopefully you get a few more opinions

 

Check w whatever utility will be providing your energy then look up heat pump water heaters.

My electric heat pump water heater was eligible for $500 in rebates and saves me a good chunk every month w reduced bills. It also almost double my capacity.

If I could have vented, I would’ve gone with gas tankless..

Good luck!

 

I hate electric. Both for water heater and kitchen. If your that concerned build a closet for it to be in. Tankless are great but a lot of plumbers don't know how to work on them and changing your shower head can make it run hot/cold. Took me a while to figure that one out.

 

Get a hybrid heat pump water heater. Its cheap to run and it will dehumidify and cool your garage. Uses about a third the energy and i never run out of hot water.

 

Can't resist......

If you have hot water, then why do you need to heat it?

Nat gas will be more efficient. If you are concerned about "blowing up the house", then build a small room for it and provide for an outside air supply.

 

Thanks. Only looking at gas at the moment as we will get rebates and with the cost of electric where we are going it (gas WH) will save us a good amount monthly. This whole gas thing started when we wanted a gas fireplace and were told there was a $1900 line charge from the utility unless we had a minimum of 2 appliances connected. The fireplace was one but since its Florida its use is limited. We then thought of having a gas line run to our patio for a BBQ but could not get a concrete answer if that would be considered an appliance. Wife likes the easy clean up from an electric stove so the next logical thing was a water heater or gas dryer. Decided on the dryer but knew the WH had better rebates and was the biggest bang for the buck. The tankless ones seem to get mixed reviews as not many people in the area have used them. Long story but the truth. LOL

Original plans called for an electric hot water heater in the garage next to a freezer or frig. As the home is in its beginning stage changes to original plans need to be made soon. Gas WH would be on 18" based as required by code and vented through the roof.

 

I'd go with a good gas power vent then. Much easier to vent through your roof and less potential for leaks/rot/rust/fire

 

Also, no need to have a separate area, vent is sealed

 

I've gotten lots of good info from this site: http://waterheaterrescue.com

The site design leaves bit to be desired, but you could ask your question of the forum and see what comes up.

I agree, a gas water heater with a tank is still the way to go. I have two in my garage plus a gas boiler for radiant heat in a utility closet and have never had the hint of an issue.

 

Can't say I've ever come across an electric one and there has never been any issue with any gas ones I've used. Ours is in the house too.

Personally, after trying tankless, I don't think I'd want anything else. More expensive, yes, but far more efficient and you'll never run out of hot water (provided you have power/gas of course) like you would with a tanked water heater.

 

A fresh air supply is needed to make up for the exhaust that is vented out and to support combustion.

 

If you only knew how long I've been waiting for the perfect chance to use this.



It may vary depending on the location, but most of the time gas is a lot cheaper to operate. You can also get by with a smaller unit since gas heats the water faster.

There are a lot more homes destroyed by electrical fires than gas explosions. But gas explosions make for big headlines.

 

^This

^And this.
No need to vent it. No fear of explosions. Get a 40 gallon and add a mixing valve and it will get you around 60 gallons of hot water.

 

I know you said no tankless , but I feel you are missing a opportunity here. I have been tankless for 24 years and loving it -- I had a Takagi for 19 and it was still working fine when I sold it for 150 bucks -- Why sold -- I wanted to increase the efficiency and went with the higher efficiency condensing model. Sure they are a little more complex to install - but if you have any plumbing talents -- YOU CAN DO IT. Did you know the US is only one of 3 or 4 countries in the world that use "tanked" water heaters? They are a plumbers "bread and butter " -- they love the installs -- easy money FOR THEM.
Do your research -- A BIG NO ON THE ELECTRIC TANKLESS -- but for nat gas or propane -- you will come out better in the long run. only caveat -- they should have a water softener feeding them -unless your water tests very naturally soft.
Good luck with your choice

 

I heard there is annual maintainance required for an outside gas water heater. If so and at what cost?

 

We bought our home in 1988 with an electric WH under the house in sort of tall crawl space. You don't actually have to crawl, but can't stand up straight either. The heater went out shortly after we moved in and I went with gas and moved it to our garage. I never did anything to it. About 20 years ago we took down the garage door, framed up a wall and double doors and turned the garage into living space. The WH sits in a corner and isn't a problem

Since 1988 I've replaced the WH twice. Most recently in March. I'm averaging about 10 years out of one.

 

Rinnai tankless.

Says a 30 yr power company guy.

Or a heat exchanger that use your heat pumps AC cycle to keep your electric tank turned off when the AC is on.

 

At my last house, I constantly had problems with the flame sensor getting soot on it and the gas not coming on meaning we occasionally ran out of hot water if I didn't attack it with steel wool.

At my current house, the builder put in a Marathon electric water heater. Seven years in, the only problem we've run into was running out of hot water when 5 of us showered over the course of an hour as they are efficient but very slow to reheat.