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Capt. George
Super Nomad
Posts: 2129
Registered: 8-21-2003
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well, well I gonna be your new neighbor....
there goes the neighborhood... but I'm a sport.
you can do your dishes and laundry in my pool, while I'm in it!
\"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men\" Plato
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oladulce
Super Nomad
Posts: 1625
Registered: 5-30-2005
Location: bcs
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The water heating set up that worked great at our old place for showers, with below-ground plastic tinacos for water storage, was an American Standard
12 gal. RV propane heater with the highest btu's. That was the greatest set up- only took about 5 min. to heat up and got the water hotter than you
needed and the temp remained consistent when using a water saving on/off button on the shower head. 4 people could easily shower ( not simultaneously)
with only a few minutes between for reheating. The tank was small enough that it didn't waste a lot of gas and we'd only turn it on right before
showering because it worked so fast.
We installed a similar set-up in the recently completed guest casita in Punta Pequeña and just returned from our first winter visit. Unfortunately,
American Standard no longer makes that rocket-blaster RV water heater so I got a different RV brand, and now our water is stored in a below-ground
concrete cisterna that sits in a lava bed and felt like a cave in Iceland inside.
The starting temp for the water was v-v-v-ery f-f-f-rrrio and combined with the less effective water heater, provided less than satisfactory results
for winter showering. Warm, but not hot enough for me unless I shower in my wetsuit. Definitely going to need to rethink this set-up.
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BajaBruno
Super Nomad
Posts: 1035
Registered: 9-6-2006
Location: Back in CA
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Mood: Happy
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I have an amusing story about these things. I used one at a local's house in Antigua, Guatemala, and it worked great. Small and primitive, but made
hot water for the shower for hours. That's the good story.
The other story was when the Nat'l Park Service maintenance crew thought it would be a good idea to install one for the shower in our little gym
at Petrified Forest N.P., Arizona. Well, as Steve in Oro Valley points out, these things are rated not for temperature, but for degrees above ambient
temp, which means that they will raise the temp of the incoming water a certain number of degrees (not a problem for longlegsinlapaz), but when it is
5 degrees F outside, you get a very chilly shower.
The real problem, however, was that the NPS boys mounted it in the bathroom closet with louvered doors and had the propane adjustment screwed up,
or maybe it had jets for natural gas or something. I just know that as I was showering I got this overpowering urge to go to sleep. Fortunately, I
figured out that I needed to get out of there before I went unconscious, and I stumbled out into the gym, wet and naked (which made for some chuckles
after the scare was over), and collapsed with carbon monoxide poisoning. Fresh air cured the problem and the boys went back to a tank heater.
I still like the concept of these heaters, but there are issues.
Christopher Bruno, Elk Grove, CA.
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longlegsinlapaz
Super Nomad
Posts: 1685
Registered: 11-18-2005
Location: La Paz
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Let's see if I got the salient points out of all these posts; my options are:
- Boil  
- Freeze 
- Potential electrocution
- Potential carbon Monoxide poisoning
- Stop showering
- Buy paper plates
- Buy wear 'n toss clothing/sheets/towels
or....................
Stick with the old tried & true technology of a conventional gas water heater & bite the bullet on LP costs by heating water 24-hours a day.
or.................... 
Possibly go electric & add an in-line timer that turns it on for a couple hours in the AM & again in the PM.
or.................... Captain George, please advise hours & location of your Pool Laundromat/dishwashing facilities!  I'm also
curious how often you plan on doing a full water change for sanitation related reasons.
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longlegsinlapaz
Super Nomad
Posts: 1685
Registered: 11-18-2005
Location: La Paz
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Larry....Uhhhhhh....because you been holding out on me??? Solar as in a black
tinaco on the roof? Or solar as in solar panels to generate electricity for an electric water heater? The latter might be easier to control water
temps a little more reliably!
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BigWooo
Senior Nomad
Posts: 579
Registered: 1-2-2007
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There are actual solar water heaters but they don't seem very easy to install yourself and are a bit pricey.
Here is an article about them.
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/renewable_energy_basics/s...
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jimgrms
Senior Nomad
Posts: 664
Registered: 9-30-2005
Location: oceanside ca
Member Is Offline
Mood: its always good
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water heaters
| Quote: | Originally posted by longlegsinlapaz
Let's see if I got the salient points out of all these posts; my options are:
- Boil
- Freeze
- Potential electrocution
- Potential carbon Monoxide poisoning
- Stop showering
- Buy paper plates
- Buy wear 'n toss clothing/sheets/towels
or....................
Stick with the old tried & true technology of a conventional gas water heater & bite the bullet on LP costs by heating water 24-hours a day.
or....................
Possibly go electric & add an in-line timer that turns it on for a couple hours in the AM & again in the Pm
Long legs how about a solar system and a thermostat to turn a elact heater on to keep soler water temp constant |
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