• whyrat@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    Yes, it’s for a water heater being inside with sufficient ventilation. If your water heater is currently in a garage or separate area the benefits change.

    I’m in Texas, and over 90% of the houses I’ve seen have the water heater in a closet somewhere inside. Some older builds have it in an attached garage. But if that is the case, there’s a good reason to move it when you next replace it, as the garage gets much colder in the winter, costing more to heat the water!

    • bizarroland@fedia.io
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      24 days ago

      Oh that is true but most of them have systems where you can attach tubes to the inputs and outputs and with enough redneck engineering (which is my upcoming plan once I finish a few other jobs) you can rig up a system to optionally either vent the cooled air outside or with a damper switch have it blow into the air intake of my AC system.

      This is easier for me since my water heater is right next to the air intake for my HVAC system.

      But, alternatively during the winter you have the option of switching over to traditional electric and even though that will negate the energy savings from the hybrid system it will prevent energy waste from cooling the air that you paid to heat.