What’s Better Electricity or Propane?

[q]Looking at a house in Fairbanks in Alaska, where it is 9 cents a kwatt. all appliances are 120 vac (ie: dryer,hot water tank heater, fridge, etc.) Except the oil furnace. Would it be wise to change the hot water heater and dryer to propane? Or would I be better off getting a wind mill […]

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Inline Electric WVO Fuel Heater

It seems the most useful thing I can pass on is regarding inline electric wvo heaters. These are simple to make using off the shelf plumbing components for around $15 each. If you are good at salvaging they can be made for far less. They use a standard 240vac water heater element run on 120vac. […]

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Drain Heat Recovery System

[q]This looks in principle to be a good idea. It often occurred to me that a whole lot of heat was going straight down the drain after bathing or during showering. The construction of this device looks so simple – it would be easy to make one cheaply using 2″ copper pipe and a coil […]

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On demand hot water AND space heating

Our current hot water is acting up (a blue Amtrol unit with a dedicated boiler) and I am considering trying an on-demand system. Our current system also heats the garage via a `box’ thru which hot water is circulated from the dedicated boiler. A powerful (noisy) fan then pushes heat into the garage. I have […]

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Cause of dripping water sound near water heater – no sign of

Any idea what might cause of sound of dripping water and what could cause this? This morning we opened closet where waterheater is located and heard a steady drip drip drip. There is an opening in the floor where the copper pipe runs down below the house from the top of the water heater; the […]

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Advice on tankless water heater

I called a plumbing company in town to get a price on a tankless hot water heater and i was a bit shocked. They said 2,500. That was a bit more then i planned but he explained they had to install it on an outside wall to vent it outside and then run the gas […]

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About Hot Water Heaters

My wife and i currently got a mobile home given to us and I’ve been remodeling it. The old hot water heater was gas, hooked up with copper pipe that’s been removed, but the water heater was split open at the seam from being frozen.(mind u this trailer has been empty for 1 1/2 years). […]

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