[Strawbale] Passive Heating/Tankless Water

[Barbara Roemiller]

Ryan,

We had similar problems with our tankless, and assumed the problem was
with the valves.  Replacing the single lever sink valve with a two
lever model seemed to improve the situation - at the sink only.  Of
course use at a sink is different, in shorter bursts, from with the
shower, so some shower problems didn't show up at the sink.  I'm glad
we didn't remove the shower single lever valve before investigating
further.  We had a new, unused, but purchased-second-hand tankless,
and after much checking with the only remaining service person in the
US, finally realized that we had not quite enough pressure at some
times as our water tank provided sufficient pressure when the tank was
full but less as we drew down the water.  We now have a Takagi which
works beautifully.  The only remaining glitch is a burp of cold water
if you shut off the shower and then turn it back on shortly
thereafter.  We also run filters at the wellhead and just before the
tankless as we have lots of minerals in the water.  Hope you find a
simple solution.  The FHB article Dot mentioned might be very helpful
to you if you have a normal-sized house.  We have a tiny little cabin,
and dealing with the burps is preferable to sacrificing any more space
to water heating.  All the variations, including solar water heating,
as I remember, are dealt with in the article.

Barbara