Posted on

Navien NPE Condensing Tankless Innovation

Condensing heat exchanger

Condensing tankless technology uses the normally wasted exhaust gases to preheat incoming water.

This has been on every one of Navien’s tankless water heaters since the beginning. The addition of the secondary heat exchanger adds about a 12-15 percent efficiency increase making a tankless water heater around 97-98 percent efficient.

With one of these systems for every dollar you send on natural gas or propane 97-98 cents are actually used to heat your water. A conventional type water heater is somewhere around 50 percent efficient so literally half of every dollar you spend on fuel is thrown away.navien heat exchanger cut out

The Navien NPE series systems have an innovative twist to their condensing tankless. The burner and heat exchanger are flipped upside down and thus, when the burner kicks on flames shoot downward. This is completely opposite to most other condensing tankless manufacture designs who have designed their systems with flames that shoot upwards. Yes, it is actually counter intuitive as heat rises upwards so you would think naturally the burner should be at the bottom.

I spent some time with a Navien representative and he thoroughly explained this (brilliant) engineering difference which I’ll try to explain it to you (hopefully as elegant as he was able to do).

A condensing tankless has a substantial amount of water form on the outside of secondary heat exchanger where the exhaust gases are flowing past, this of course is what makes it a condensing tankless. With the presence of the exhaust the water is naturally acidic and will eat away at the heat exchanger over time. Navien having put the burner at the top with the secondary heat exchanger at the bottom prevents the condensate from dripping over the primary heat exchanger enhancing its lifespan.

This design has been tested thoroughly by Navien and they offer the industries best heat exchanger warranty at 15 years. The best warranty you will find on a heat exchanger with other tankless systems is 12 years.

We sell and service all makes and models of Navien condensing tankless water heaters. This is a brand we trust and a system that is personally owned by several of our staff. If you think a Navien might be right for your home give us a call to discuss.

 

Call Us Anytime — (647) 925 1930

Posted on

Best Tankless Systems for Ontario

Best tankless systems for Ontario homes

It used to be easy for Ontario home owners to select their whole home tankless water heater as only 2 maybe 3 systems would be sufficient.  Today things have changed and there are numerous tankless water heaters as well as conventional tank type water heaters that are not only super highly efficient but also offer an endless supply of hot water.

We are going to try and give you an overview of the best tankless systems available today.

 

SystemCondensingEfficiencyMax FlowMin FlowWarrantyPrice
RINNAI TANKLESS SYSTEMS
RU98iYES96%9.8/GPM4.9/GPM12 YearsQuote
RU80iYES96%8.0/GPM4.4/GPM12 YearsQuote
RL94iNO82%9.8/GPM4.2/GPM12 YearsQuote
RL75iNO82%8.0/GPM3.8/GPM12 YearsQuote
RHEEM TANKLESS SYSTEMS
RTGH-95YES94%9.5/GPM4.9/GPM12 YearsQuote
RTGH-84YES94%8.4/GPM3.9/GPM12 YearsQuote
RTG-95NO82%9.5/GPM4.3/GPM12 YearsQuote
RTG-84NO82%8.4/GPM3.9/GPM12 YearsQuote
NAVIEN TANKLESS SYSTEMS
NPE s 180YES97%8.4/GPM3.8/GPM15 YearsQuote
NPE s 210YES97%10.1/GPM4.6/GPM15 YearsQuote
NPE s 240YES97%11.2/GPM5.1/GPM15 YearsQuote
NPE a 180YES97%8.4/GPM3.8/GPM15 YearsQuote
NPE a 210YES97%10.1/GPM4.6/GPM15 YearsQuote
NPE a 240YES97%11.2/GPM5.1/GPM15 YearsQuote
HTP HIGH EFFICIENCY TANK
Versa Hydro
PHE130-55YES96%7.0/GPM3.0/GPM12 YearsQuote
PHE199-55YES96%7.9/GPM4.6/GPM12 YearsQuote
PHE130-80YES96%7.0/GPM3.0/GPM12 YearsQuote
PHE199-80YES96%7.9/GPM4.6/GPM12 YearsQuote
PHE130-119YES96%7.0/GPM3.1/GPM12 YearsQuote
PHE199-119YES96%7.9/GPM4.6/GPM12 YearsQuote
Versa Flame
PHR-130-55YES95%7.0/GPM3.2/GPM12 YearsQuote
PHR-160-55YES95%7.5/GPM3.85/GPM12 YearsQuote
PHR-199-55YES95%7.9/GPM4.8/GPM12 YearsQuote
Envirosense
6G50-PDVHYES96%8.0/GPM2.4/GPM6 YearsQuote
6G5076-02YES90%8.0/GPM2.3/GPM6 YearsQuote

 

Choosing The Best Tankless System

As the chart above indicates…. There are a lot of choices for home owners.  For the most part the systems listed are the best available here in Ontario.  There are numerous other brands that dealers or HVAC sales technicians might try to push on you but the one listed are tried and tested for our cold winters.

Budget will probably be the biggest factor in determining which will be the best tankless system for your home.  Give us a call and we can give you some rough prices over the phone and can offer exact tankless prices with a free installation inspection (we have to see the gas lines, venting run, venting termination, etc before we can be certain any tankless can be installed).

Book Your Inspection Today – (647) 925 1930

Posted on

Radiant Floor Heating with a Tankless

tankless radiant floors

We are receiving an ever increasing number in inquiries regarding the installation of tankless water heaters and radiant floor heating.  There are a number of reasons why and we hope to fully explain them below.

Conventionally radiant floor heating was done with a boiler which is large and very expensive.  Today’s technology has brought us tankless water heaters which are small enough to hang on the wall yet more powerful than ever.

Benefits of using a Tankless for Radiant Floor Heating

  • A Tankless is cheaper to buy
  • Space saving size
  • Powerful enough to provide heating as well as domestic hot water needs
  • Built in circulation pump
  • A single system can heat homes up to 3000sq feet
  • High efficiency systems (98%)

Why is radiant floor heating so nice?

Having your floors heated provides a completely different feel and comfort level within your home.  Have you ever unknowingly walked by something hot and felt that faint sensation of heat but not know where it’s coming from.  Well radiant floors are similar in a sense, and heat is released evenly throughout your home.

Radiant floor heating is much more efficient than forced air.  The floor has a much greater thermal mass and thus releases the heat slowly and evenly when heated radiantly.  A forced air furnace indirectly tries to heat your home by heating the air.  This hot air rises and in fact works to heat your roof.

Installation

Radiant floors can now be installed under tiles, hardwood, and even laminate.  The tubing is pre-made and carries a long guarantee (depends on brand).   Let us come out and give you a free quote to install radiant floor heating in your home.

 

Call Us (647) 925-1930

 

Posted on

Reliance Water Heater

relaince water heater company logo

Looking To Upgrade Your Water Heater?

 

We offer rental water heaters at a cheaper price than our competitors, and we can prove it.

Guaranteed we’re not the only water heating company here in Southern Ontario, but that’s a good thing.  Competition brings about cheaper prices for consumers.  Its fast and simple to Google anything, you can have 10+ companies vying for your business in a single search.  We hope you choose us to be one of the few that get an opportunity to offer you a quote.

There is a good chance you have a reliance water heater and you have chosen to rent your system.  We offer identical rental water heaters at a reduced cost as well as the new tankless systems.Ultra Series Tankless

Your conventional tank type Reliance water heater in the the basement or closet is always running, while you sleep, work, go on vacation, etc.  A tankless water heater is an on demand system.  That mean the moment you want hot water it turns on until the moment you shut off your tap;  it only runs when you need hot water and is completely shut off at all other times.

A Tankless water heater is super efficient as well, up into the high 95 percent plus range.  The conventional tank you rent from Reliance is probably only 50 percent efficient at best.

It may be time to move your rental Reliance water heater over to us and get an ultra efficient tankless system at nearly the same price your paying to rent you inefficient model.  Reliance has no contracts and no penalties to leave so switching is an easy process.

Give us a call today to discuss your opportunity to get a rental tankless water heater.

Call (647) 925 1930 or fill out our form and we will contact you

Posted on

Rinnai Tankless Promotional Video

Rinnai Adverting Video

This is an interesting video produced by Rinnai that talks about how a tankless works.  They go over the very way to address the amount of water that a tank produces verses that of a tankless.  They also talk about the lifespan of a tankless compared to that of a conventional tank.

With a tank water is continually heated and reheated wasting valuable energy when hot water is not in use. On top of that your hot water supply is limited to the gallons of water your tank can hold.    A Rinnai tankless water heater is more efficient, providing endless hot water only when you need it.  A Rinnai tankless has double the lifespan of a tank, making it ultimately the better value system.

Maybe its time you contemplate going tankless in your home?

Click  to see this video from Rinnai posted on Youtube

Posted on

Condensing Verses Non-Condensing Tankless Water Heaters

Condesning tankless

As tankless water heaters become more and more popular the number of manufactures and models are increasing.  A tankless is also referred to as an on demand water heater and as you would expect there is no storage tank on these systems.  Using a more powerful burner a tankless can heat water instantly removing the need for the storage tank.  Although it uses more fuel while heating water it uses absolutely zero any other time, this results in an average of 40% fuel savings over a conventional tank that always keeps your water hot.

On the newer side of things are the condensing tankless water heaters available to home owners now.  These units use two heat exchangers.  The first is primarily used to heat water to your desired temperature.  The second is smaller and located near the top of the unit where the exhaust gases are used to preheat the incoming water.  Using this normally wasted heat in the exhaust bumps up the efficiency of a condensing tankless to 95% or better.

A conventional tankless doesn’t take advantage a second heat exchanger and thus the exhaust gases are much hotter and actually require special venting materials.  This can sometimes add to the cost of installing a tankless.  Whereas your condensing tankless utilizing that second heat exchanger significantly reduces exhaust temperatures, this allows contractors to use less expensive venting materials.

In general for Canadians a condensing tankless works a little better. Preheating the incoming water (which is cold during our winters) allows the tankless to throttle down its gas usage when only a little hot water is needed. Yet, when a high demand appliance requests a lot of hot water the tankless has more than enough power to supply the request. See the recommended Canadian tankless installers and tankless systems.

A condensing tankless cools the normally hot exhaust so much that moisture actually builds up inside the heat exchanger.  Moisture and steam are by-products of combustion and this is a very normal result.  As water clings to the side of the heat exchanger it builds up until it starts to drip down, this water is acidic due to combustion; the water has a pH between 3 and 5.  Rheem has a buffer tank built into its tankless systems to neutralize the condensate.  Rinnai has an external system that buffers this excess water.  Other manufactures have different systems, if you’re interested in any particular one give us a call.

 

To Conclude condensing tankless water heaters are incredibly efficient (up to 98%), and use inexpensive venting material saving on installation costs.  A condensing unit is more expensive to purchase but prices start to even out when purchasing exhaust materials for a regular tankless.  The choice is yours with regards to which system you feel best fits the needs of your home.

If you have any further question don’t hesitate to ask us

Posted on

Achieving The Best Water Heater Efficiency

water heater efficiency

Looking to get the best water heater efficiency out of your your homes system? We have put together a few tips that you can take advantage of when looking at increasing your homes water heating bills.

First we recommend that you take a quick trip to Home Depot, Lowes or another renovation retailer (preferably Canadian owned and operated) to purchase pipe insulation. One way to really improve efficiency is to insulate the hot water pipes in your home, its really surprising how many homes just don’t employ this simple upgrade.drain water heat recovery and a tankless

The next suggestion is really only possible if you are renovating. For maximum water heater efficiency the unit should be located as close as possible to the point of use, this will significantly reduce the energy lost from long pipe runs mentioned above. If you happen to have a small powder room at the far end of your home consider a small electric tank installed under your sink, they hold a gallon of hot water and can save a lot of energy.

Consider a drain water heat recovery system, these simple units are installed in the basement on your drain pipe. As hot water from the shower or tap is dumped down the drain a heat exchanger captures the lost energy and uses it to preheat the water going to your water heater. The saving can exceed 40% and reduce the overall energy consumption of your entire home by 10%.

Depending on how you and your family use hot water a tankless or a high efficiency conventional tank can go a long way to improving your homes water heater efficiency rating.

Interested in any of the items we mentioned above? Give us a call (647) 925-1930 and we can answer any question you may have.

As always knowledge is power and information is always free!

Posted on

Tank Less Hot Water Heaters –

GTA Tankless Sales

Tank Less

There are some interesting ways in which people search tank less water heaters, this includes the spelling I just mentioned.  Tank less hot water heaters, technically that is exactly what a tankless is.  A tankless is a unit that produces hot water on demand, no storage or storage tank needed. Ohh and tank less is actually just one word, tankless.

Have these systems become popular? I would say that they are on the edge of becoming very popular.  As energy prices continue to climb we see more and more innovative products coming out helping to reduce energy use.  In Toronto, the GTA, and the numerous towns and cities that encompass Ontario mostly utilize hot water tank type systems.  A conventional tank is around 60% efficient when it is first built and efficiency is reduced by about 2% per year due to scale and lime buildup.  A tank less hot water heater starts life between 82% and 95% efficiency but, like the conventional hot water tank, is also subject to a 2% efficiency loss per year.  The benefits of a tank less system is that it is designed to have the offending scale and lime removed easily restoring the original efficiency.

In and around the Toronto, Hamilton, Oakville, Golden Horseshoe area we spend about 35% of our homes total energy bills on heating water.  A tankless can reduce this by roughly 40%, thus your water heating bill can be reduced to around just 20% of total home energy needs.  This adds up pretty quickly when you realize that you heat water in your home 365 days a year; winter, summer, fall, spring, it doesn’t matter it’s always hot.

Take a look at the new generation of tank less hot water heaters , they are well suited and well designed for Toronto and area homes.

(647) 925-1930

Give us a call and we can answer any questions you may have as well as give you a price for a tank less.

Posted on

Tank VS Tankless – Misconceptions

Tankless Toronto

There are a lot of misconceptions regarding tank type water heaters and tankless systems.  As a homeowner, if you’re thinking of adding a tankless to your home take what you read on the internet with a grain of salt.  Everyone seems to be some sort of expert on water heaters and can tell you which system is better when in reality you yourself needs to make the decision.  A tankless has been installed tens of thousands of homes throughout the greater Toronto area with positive reviews.

In some situations as tankless is not the right choice, you need to trust your water heater installer to shoot you straight.  The hard part is finding reputable tankless installers that are willing to tell you the whole truth and not just force the sale through.  I can tell you without hesitation that we and all employees put the homeowners interest first.  Operating on this simple principle ensures that the homeowner remains a customer and we remain in business. Simple as that.

Now back to the tankless misconceptions published throughout the internet.  A recent article regarding the pros and cons was published on thesop.org by a writing that appears to have just taken some common thoughts regarding the system and published them as if completely true.

Below is our response to the author regarding his article.

Hello John,

I read your article on thesop.org and wanted to correct you on a few things regarding tank vs tankless water heaters.

You said – Tankless water heaters are about 10 to 20% more energy efficient than traditional tank water heaters.

Tankless range from 82% to 98% efficiency, an expensive conventional tank brand new is lucky to be 60% so 20-30 percent is more accurate.

You said – Tankless water heaters work best when only one water tap is using hot water.

That’s not accurate at all, a tankless can easily run 3 showers and a dishwasher simultaneously (or some similar combination).

You said – If water taps are far apart from each other, it is recommended to buy another tankless water heater.

How does that even make sense? A tankless is designed to produce enough hot water for your whole home and is usually installed very close to where the old tank was installed, thus the hot water has the exact same distance to travel.

You said – Water does not instantly heat up when using a tankless water heater, but does with a tank heater.

This is backwards, it does heat up instantly, tankless are sometimes referred to as insta-hot water heaters.

You said – Tankless water heaters require yearly maintenance in order to remain efficient.

This is correct but not a bad thing as you stated… any and all water heaters see a 2% reduction in efficiency every year due to scale and lime build up.  A tankless is designed to have the scale removed or flushed out of the system so that it maintains its very high efficiency rating.  A conventional tank has no flush or maintenance thus the scale builds up year after year.   Think of the efficiency these two water heating systems are operating at 10 years down the road.

You’re a university student,  I know you can do better than this.   Let me know if you’re interested in re-writing, correcting, or doing another article on the subject. I would be more than happy to answer any questions or provide any help needed to accurately portray the pros and cons of tankless systems.

Read the original article here

Posted on

Direct Energy and Reliance Fined

Canadian Water Heater Competition

The Canadian Competition Bureau has issued a fine of 25 million dollars to both Direct Energy and Reliance Comfort. The charges suggest that the two water heater rental companies have been gouging customers and making it ridiculously difficult to end contracts. Both Direct Energy and Reliance offer rental water heaters throughout Ontario.

Critics suggest that the industry is mainly a big scam as the cost of renting a water heater is nearly high enough to cover the cost of owing one. In addition the penalties to exit a contract are exorbitant and designed to confuse and frustrate a customer into giving up.

Interestingly this isn’t the first time that Direct Energy has been in hot water. In 2002 following a similar investigation the Competition Bureau enforced new rules and conduct guidelines that Enbridge Services (now Direct Energy) was required to follow under a 10 year consent order. The investigation found that Direct Energy re-engaged in the sleazy conduct in February of 2012.

As for Reliance, the company was apparently in a co-operative discussion regarding its hot water tank return policy. They also suggested that the company had initiated the difficult return policy in an attempt to thwart rival water heater companies.

I cant think of a better reason to simply purchase your own water heater, be that a tankless or just your conventional power vent. The rental business can be full of bureaucracy and technicalities. If you must have the peace of mind that comes with a full service, 24 hour emergency replacement then it might be worthwhile to look into maintenance plans. These are usually only 5-10 bucks a month, depending on equipment and gives you a full sense of security, oh ya, also no long term contract.

Interested in moving away form a rental and into owning your water heater?

We have helped many of our customers escape their long term contracts.

We can Help you as well.

(647) 925-1930