Many systems have short paybacks for home retrofits and help homeowners save energy for years to come. Take for example, a home’s hot water and heating needs, they are the highest energy cost in our climate. Most homes have separate systems like a gas or electric tank water heater and a gas forced air furnace or boiler. One innovative member of the Green Building community is Dave Emmitt, owner of Go-Tankless of Colorado. He pairs a tankless hot water heater with your existing furnace, which is rebuilt to use a copper coil hydronic system powered by the hot water from the on-demand tankless thus almost magically creating space heat from hot water. He has done endless retrofits of these furnace & hot water systems but this year is taking customers to the next level by introducing them to solar thermal energy. Solar thermal is a hot water system that is easily linked to use the tankless as backup for a mid-size holding tank heated by the sun. Emmitt says this meets most homeowner’s hot water needs during daylight hours and for a few hours into the evening. Customers in Colorado are experiencing dramatically reduced energy costs including some zero energy days for hydronic heat & hot water. An added note is that tankless water heaters are modulating too, which means if water is preheated (from the solar tank) the tankless will work only to bring the desired temperature, again, being almost magically efficient from the perspective of energy output. Current customers are raving not only about the energy savings but that the comfort levels in their homes being much better with hydronic heat that with forced air.
Read more on Tankless & Furnace Integrations. Read more on Dave’s energy tricks.
Is this worth your investment? - See their Payback Chart for Tankless & Hydronic Furnace Systems.
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