Calling Hart & Iliff Can Get You Into A Lot of Hot Water
Some time ago, we received a call from a customer to tell us that his 80-gallon electric water heater was leaking and needed to be replaced.
"Are you getting enough hot water?" we asked. "When all of my children are home we frequently run out of hot water," he said.
"We can replace your existing electric water heater with an 80-gallon or even a 120-gallon electric water heater or we can install an oil-fired water heater. They produce six times as much hot water for about a quarter of the price," we said.
"How can that be?" he replied. "Because the average electric water heater makes 20 gallons of hot water an hour," we explained. "We call that recovery rate. It tells you the amount of hot water that a water heater can make in one hour. The average oil-fired hot water heater has a recovery rate of 120 gallons an hour, which means that it makes six times as much hot water."
"What about the operating costs?" he asked. "Generally," we said, "an oil fired system can make all the hot water you need for about $15 a month. On the other hand, running an 80-gallon electric water heater costs about $60 a month."
"If what you say is true," he asked, "then why doesn't everyone have an oil-fired water heater?" "Because oil-fired water heaters cost about three times as much to install," we told him.
"But if you save $45 a month and get six times as much hot water," he said, "it seems like a good investment, doesn't it?"
"You don't have to convince me," we answered.
We gave the customer a price on a 32-gallon oil-fired water heater and told him we could install it the next day. He asked, "How can I possibly get enough hot water from a 32-gallon oil-fired water heater when I wasn't getting enough from an 80-gallon electric water heater?"
"Remember what we told you about recovery rate," we said. "Believe me, that 32-gallon water heater will make enough hot water for you to sell to your neighbors if you want. Try it for two weeks," we suggested, "and if you don't get enough hot water, we'll put in a larger one at no charge."
"That sounds fair enough," he said. We installed the 32-gallon oil fired water heater the next day. Two weeks later we received a phone call from the customer. "Just as you said, this oil-fired water heater is amazing," he said. "I can't believe how much hot water it makes. I can't run out of hot water no matter how hard I try."
If you have a hot water or hydronic system, you can get the same dramatic results as this customer, by having us install a storage tank (called an "indirect water heater") off your existing boiler. This indirect water heater stores hot water just like a giant thermos bottle. It has a stainless steel coil inside. We run boiler water through the coil to heat the hot water. The two waters never touch each other and everything stays very clean.
