Water Heaters

[Mr. Bubbles]

Does anyone know of an electric water heater that I can use at my wash. Gas is not an option where I am building. And do I really need heated water. I am located in the south and I am building a 5 n 1. Thanks for your help.

-Mr. Bubbles

[I.B. Washincars]

I'm assuming you only need it for the SS bays? Do you have plenty of room in the eq. room? If so, why not just go to HD or Lowes and get the biggest household unit they have and see if it can keep up. If it doesn't, add another. They are relatively cheap compared to commercial stuff. Install them where they can be replaced easily if they don't last as long as the commercial units.

[bmills]

You might try to go with an electric tankless type. I have been using a Titan SC2 for a couple of years now and am very pleased with it's performance.

You can find them at titanheater.com. I have been using my unit only for heat on an IBA machine that requires rail and gantry heat. I believe that the Titan website will provide a temp rise chart vs. flow volume so that you can decide on which model you will need.

They are extremely compact, (about 1/2 the size of a shoebox). They are however also very power hungry. Mine is 54amps at 220vac.

They will also modulate current demand based on flow and your thermostat preferred setting. All in all probably better than keeping a large amount of water hot when not needed.

Good luck,

Bill

[MEP001]

Can you not get propane on site? As a rule natural gas or propane heat are much less expensive than electric.

[soapy]

Right now it costs twice as much to heat with propane vs. heating with natural gas based on the high propane prices. Electricity might end up being cheaper than propane.

[cleaning up mud]

We have on wash on natural gas and one on propane. NG is way less expensive, I would think propane is a better choice for washes then electric.

[Waxman]

Does a propane boiler need to be converted to NG?

[cleaning up mud]

Yes! the burners are not the same.

[rph9168]

Sometimes it's easier and cheaper just to replace it rather than convert it.

[Waxman]

I don't know. I've got 3 year old raypaks that have been until very recently totally trouble free.

I never looked into the price of lng vs propane.

How much of a difference are we talking?

Is it historically and regularly lower in price?

If so, why does anyone use propane???

[rph9168]

The only washes I have seen that used propane were ones that wanted to have gas heat and had no access to gas lines.

[Whale of a Wash]

we use propane where nat. gas is not available or no pipeline
we are paying $.86 per therm of nat. gas Propqne is a byproduct of refining oil, a member of the butane,propane, hexane, and octane family This is the conversion for some fuels Clearly nat. gas and propane are the easiest to deal with The same heat with electricity requires a large service with more demand charges
1 therm nat.gas 100,000 Btu
1gal propane 92,000 Btu
1kwh electricity 3413 btu
1gal gas 120,000 Btu
1gal Diesel 140,000 Btu
1ton coal 27.8M Btu
1cord hardwood 24M Btu

[JIMT]

This is a very small electric heater that you could put anywhere. They have several sizes.

http://www.titantankless.com/

JIMT