water heater setting

[firechief]

Hello all,

I've had my E-Classic up and running for about 6 weeks now and am learning a great deal how to use it to its full potential thanks to all on this forumn. I have my OWB hooked up through my water heater and yesterday we started running short on hot water for showers. It's my wife and I and three boys so we do use some hot water especially since my teenager seems to "camp out" in the shower.  My question is what setting should I keep my water heater on ?  My first thought was to put it on the "vavcation" setting and let the OWB do all the heating.  After yesterday I was thinking of setting it somewhere between "warm and hot" sort of as a back up to ensure we had hot water.  I know once the water (40 gallons) is gone it may take awhile to heat back up, and I was just wondering the best way to do that.  I would appreciate everyone's thoughts and opinions.  Thanks.

Jim

[red oaks lumber]

i know nothing about c.b. stoves but, if your heating the water from your stove you should'nt be running out. i can have the dishwasher, doing laundry, be the 4th one in the shower and still have plenty of h. water, sounds like something isn't hooked up right, are you using a plate exchanger to heat your domestic water?or how is it plumbed?

[stumper]

I think this will depend on how things are plumbed. 

I have my domestic hot water set at 165.  It is heated by a loop from the furnace.  My ODWB is set at 185.  I have a tempering valve after the water heater to bring the temp down to a cooler faucet temp.  This lower the 165 dow to where it should not scald and extends the hot water.  I have an 80 gallon tank.  With the wife 7 year old twins and 2 teen aged boys that also "camp out" I do not run out of hot water.  I do not even run short if we fill the 2 person wirlpool and that must take 100 to 150 gallons.

Hope this helps.

[richsei]

I had to put a circuiting pump on my hot water tank side to make it work right. It would heat the water but took a long time to heat up but now that I have the pump on there it heats up a lot faster.

[firechief]

My dealer did all the indoor plumbing and the hot water has been fine for the past 6 weeks, as its ok today also.  It just seems like that one day I had an issue with running low on the water.  The wife did do some laundry and we did have some showers, also it is only a 40 gallon tank.  I'm sure everything is hooked up ok. I do have a mixing valve on my water heater but at the moment is not letting any cold mix in at all until I get it adjusted. My OWB is at 185 but I have no way to have a "number" degree on my water heater. But back to my original question: Would it be best to set my water heater to "vacation" setting and let the OWB heat everything or set it somewhere between "warm and hot" for a back up in case my OWB is not keeping up?
Just curious how others have their setting.  Thanks again.

Jim

[richsei]

I have my tank turned off, Just using the CB to heat all my water and works fine.

[ral]

Like Stumper, same temps. set but minus a few feet running around. Can do everything, laundry, showers, big tub over 100 gallons, but with two 40 gallon units. It is way better now then when I had both running on LP, I used to run out of hot water. I have both heaters off and was suprised how well it keeps up with no circ pump on heaters, just the side arms. Do you think maybe that yours could be limed up? I have a young gal that can stay in the shower for well until half time of a football game! Using a e-classic.

[red oaks lumber]

firechief,
i have my water heater set at 130 deg. just in case my fire goes low

[Gary_C]

I just installed a side arm heater supplied by my CB 6048 on my electric hot water heater. However they also installed a tempering valve on the outlet so I can control the water temperature lower than the 185 deg the OWB is set at. And even though the temperature is set at the lowest setting, which is 120 deg, my wife is saying the water is still too hot for the kids to safely use. We have never run out of hot water yet but there is only the two of us and we have an 80 gallon hot water heater.

So I just looked up safe hot water temperatures and found this.

We know according to data from the National Safe Kids Campaign that between 4,000-5000 children are scaled each year, most often in bathtubs. The average bathtub scald covers 12% of the body surface with a full thickness third degree burn. Statistics also indicate that the scald burn sources were 95% residential settings (54% in apartment houses and 46% in single family homes.)

Did you know?

Severely burned Children require constant skin grafts as they grow.

Grafted skin does not regenerate and must be replaced often until growth of the person stops.



Scalding is a serious safety hazard to children and the elderly, and yet research scientists, manufacturer's and code committees cannot agree on what that safe temperature should be. You do not need to wait until a code is established to act to protect your children now. Take the knowledge you've learned and implement the changes now before one of your family members are injured. Consider point of use temperatures well below 120ºF.



120ºF water temperature at the point of use is not safe. The pain threshold for most people is 106ºF. Lowering of water heater temperatures to 120ºF is not safe either, and in fact, most people who lower setting to 120ºF, raise the temperature setting again, because they find themselves running out of hot water at this setting.

At 120ºF 3rd degree burns occur within 3.1 minutes for children and 4.8 minutes for adults. Compare this to water temperature at 140ºF where it takes only 0.7 seconds for a child and 2.8 seconds for an adult. Worse yet is 150ºF where it takes 0.5 seconds for a child and 1.8 seconds for an adult.


Like this article says, even 120 F water is still not safe. I know when we were milking cows, the hot water heater in the milkhouse was set at 160 F and that temperature was extremely dangerous but necessary for pipeline washing. I suspect my home hot water heater thermostat was set somewhere between 110 and 115 F.

[stumper]

Great info. 

I neglected to mention that the controls to the tubs and faucets that the kids use are anti scald.  I know you are going to say that even these anti scald only lower the temps to arround 120, but most will not kids will not put up wil minutes of pain to reach the scald point.  Where as the 0.7 seconds could occur in the reaction time to get out of the hot water.

[firechief]

Hey all,

Thanks for all the info, very interesting.  I do have a tempering valve installed but have yet to set it.  My kids are conscious enough to be able to set the tub, shower water themselves so I may not mess with it.  It must have been a freak day with hot water as it has only happened that one time in the last 6 weeks and hasn't happened since.  Thanks again for all the comments.

Jim

[richsei]

firechief
I was just thinking about this and I had something like this happen. not a lot of hot water. what I found was the sidearm was air locked and had to bleed the air out of it. then I had all the hot water I need.  Sorry so late with this info.

[firechief]

Thanks richsei

Funny thing is that it's only happened that one day and not since then.  It may have been too many showers and laundry all going on around the same time.  I'll keep your suggestion in mind for the future, thanks for the reply.

Jim

[Gary_C]

The sidearm heater I now have was installed with a fancy little brass air eliminator on the top fitting. Do you have something like this?

[firechief]

Thanks Gary,
Just looked and mine isn't on the unit but looks like it is on the 90 degree fitting on top of the sidearm.  Guess I've never noticed it before since my water heater is tucked in the corner of the basement utility room.  Won't hurt to try and bleed any air out at this point, nothing to lose I guess.