ISO help with Solar or Gas for hot water heater for coop bld

We are a Coop with 16 Units trying to go as green as we can given that we are doing a new roof and planing on installing Solar to offset our electric needs for the common areas. But now one of our gas hot water heaters just broke and is leaking now, we are ready to replace them as both units are old. We also trying to determinate if we should switch from gas to an high efficiency electric unit We called AO Smith, they recommend a water heater for the size of our building (we asked for electric HE) a single 65gal 75kw model, DSC 65-75. He says the new models are much more efficient and have fast recovery time. He sized it for 16 units assuming all have own washing machine & dishwashers & 1 bath. The model is 54 inches, we have about 84 inches floor to ceiling.I asked about having 2 as a backup plan, he says it’s overkill but we could put in 2 50 gal, same 75 kw. Model DSC 50-75\. Says the kw is the important factor for the size of building.Both models come in power 208 or 240 or 480 depending on our need. ( We are not sure what would be best for our building ) We are pretty much in the dark how much the usage would be and to what end our electric bill can balloon. Does anyone have any experience with HE combined with solar ? Or can recommend someone who has ?

luvzcritters

in About Brooklyn 9 years and 10 months ago

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melissamatt | 9 years and 10 months ago

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Hi, try to look for contractors here: https://www.hirerush.com/NY/service/hvac This is a website with different ads of professionals, so you can choose between them and pick up the best one for you. Wish you luck.

steam_man | 9 years and 10 months ago

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August, I run a solar thermal installation company called NYC Solar. Given what the OP has already written, I am betting that faced with the impending demise of their current water heater, they cannot afford the time nor the cost of installing solar thermal. So my comments were directed at helping out a person with an immediate need as well as my feeling that they aren’t going to spend the $40k that it will probably cost to do solar correctly for this application.

Augustiner | 9 years and 10 months ago

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@steam_man why are you against solar thermal? Isn’t it time to do things the right way instead of the cheapest way?

steam_man | 9 years and 10 months ago

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Laars MightyTherm2 with an AO Smith 119 gallon storage tank and call it a day. Solar thermal is going to run the multiples of thousandses.

cmu | 9 years and 10 months ago

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A ‘more efficient’ electric heater is marketing hype. By definition they convert 100% of electric energy to heat, and since there’s no vent tube, standby losses are much lower than gas heaters (maybe 2%). A high-efficiency (95%) gas heater like the Vertex will be 1/3 the running cost of an electric one. Heat pump heaters are like reverse air conditioners. Expensive and still twice more to run than gas. Here’s how to compare costs: Elec: 20c/kwh=3,400btu; heat pump with cop=2.2, 20c/7,500btu; gas=$1.50/therm=100,000btu (x efficiency, .8 to .95). And no way is a single 65 gal tank sufficient for 16 units!

eman134 | 9 years and 10 months ago

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While it is noble that you are attempting to go green, your electric hot water heater idea is nuts. You probably do not have enough power on the house panel to run it and the monthly bill will kill you.Stick with gas or go with the gas backed solar recommended by august. But believe me the gas backed solar will not be cheap

Augustiner | 9 years and 10 months ago

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Are you talking about solar or solar thermal? A 75kw/150kwelectric water heater will kill you on your electric bill. It’s much much cheaper to generate this this with gas. There is nothing ‘efficient’ or green about that. Also there is no way you can produce even 10% of your new power consumption with solar PV. If you go electric put in air source heat pump water heaters. You need probably 4 x 80 gallon. Each of them use 500w for a total of 2kw. I think there is even a ConEd cash back program for these. If you want to do something green then do a gas backed solar thermal system with a couple 1000 liter storage tanks. But have it designed by someone who knows what they’re doing