What is best hot water service - continuos heating or storage?

[High Country]

I currently have a 315 litre gas hot water service; however, it is situated a long way from ensuite and kitchen (I fill a 10 litre bucket of cold water in the shower each use). As such, I want to put a smaller unit closer. Plumbers have given me differing advice ; one insists on a 26 litre continuos flow, and another swears by a small storage unit. Any advice would be appreciated.

[bricks]

if replacing the big unit then go a 26 litre instant, if just serviceing the shower /bathroom then go a smaller unit.

[Bleedin Thumb]

Do you have gas connected to the house?

[davo2310]

If you wanted to leave the storage heater where it was, you could look at a return line with a circulating pump, if your pipework is accessible below the house, gives you hot water pretty much straight away if the return line is close enough to the end. But then you need a power point aswell. depends on the distance compared to new pipework for a new heater location. Rinnai 26 are great, havent had any probs with em yet.

[Ashwood]

If you need hot water at many different spots (toilet sink, kitchen sink, washing machine, dishwasher, etc) then storage may be better.

Or if you have many people in the house or hot water fairly frequently, storage is worthwhile having.

If you only need it for one or two locations/points, and if it's just 1 or 2 people taking showers, then an instant heater will save you quite a bit of $$$.

[juan]

Get a Rinnai 26 Plus Instantaneous HWS u will not regret it.

Cheers

[wonderplumb]

There is a pump you can get called a Chilli Pepper. I installed one at a place in Randwick and it worked like a charm.
They fit inside the vanity cabinet and connect to the H & C water points under the basin, obviously still keeping the basin connected.
They are a small unit and have a button wired to them that you mount somewhere discreet on the out side of the vanity cabinet.
When you push the button it will draw from the HW pipework and push it back up the CW pipework untill a certain temperature has been acheived then stop.
You then have HW the second you turn a tap on.
The only drama we had there was you need power inside the vanity but there was a power point in the bathroom about 1m away and it took the sparky all of 1/2hr to fit one.
This particular bathroom was around 12m from the HWS and it took the pump around 10sec to reach temperature.
Yes they are approved, at the time I think the unit was around the $400 mark which included all the needed fittings plus labour.
The bloke I was working for at the time ordered it through Reece.
As someone mentioned you could run a circulating pump but will need to install a return line from the furthest draw-off point, which could be a hassle depending on the design of your house, and are really only beneficial if the pipework has been designed to accomodate this system, ie it will be no good if the bathroom in question has its HW supply coming from a tee in the HW pipework then running 10m...........

[High Country]

Yes, natural gas!

[zelk]

We recently replaced our old smallish gas storage heater with the largest Bosch instantaneous gas heater.

The new heater was placed in the same spot as the old one.

We now find that more cold water is wasted before we get hot water.

Could this be an issue with the quality of the brand we chose?

Zelk

[juan]

What temperature is the water coming from the unit. I have mine set to 60 degrees. If the units had the same temperature it would be logical that the amount of water run off to heat the pipes would be the same. I suspect the output is set to 50 degrees only.

[Bleedin Thumb]

Yes, natural gas!

Well I would also suggest the Rinnea Infinity - there is an issue of the tap running cold for a while but you are only paying to heat the water that you use not heating water in a storage tank that looses heat to the atmosphere.

Which begs the question what is less harmful to the environment?

A. Extra water usage or
B. Extra energy usage?