I can't think of a better forum to ask for some advice on this.
We just had the chimney sweep inspect our flues. They are the highest rated folks in town. On the plus side, the fireplace is in great shape. But, we have an oil fired furnace and an oil fired water heater - and they recommended that both of those have liners installed in their flues.
Our water heater is 15 years old. It also makes a popping sound when running which is probably built up debris inside. It has a slight rotten egg smell as well. AND - we occasionally get a smell of diesel exhaust pumped through the house - the reason we called the chimney people in the first place.
So, I'm considering ditching the oil fired water heater and replacing it with an electric one. We have a 30A circuit in the area already...possibly from a previous water heater before someone switched to oil...? I have to run the math, but I figure I can install a water heater for less than the price of the flue liner.
How "bad" are electric water heaters? Concerned about recovery time and electricity costs vs oil prices. Would appreciate any commentary on the water heater issue or flue liners. Thanks!
Can you go with a tankless heater? I know even with those electric is usually considered less preferred than gas/oil/whatever, but I think your electric cost would probably be lower than with a standard electric unit.
With the current cost of oil, the electric isn't that bad of an option. Oil fired water heaters are dinosaurs only installed by oil companies to get more of your money. There is a newish alternative to electric WHs. They use a heat pump mounted on top of the water heater to make hot water instead of a heating element. Suppose to save big time on usage costs, and have a better recovery rate, but the buy in is more than double the cost of a standard electric WH. Use those yellow operation cost tags on the side to compare models, but be careful of what price for fuel they are using as a basis. Will require some math to get actual cost of usage so you can compare apples to apples. FWIW a gallon of oil has around 140,000BTUs. I'm also assuming you don't have gas in your area. If you do, switching to high efficiency gas appliances is a no brainer. Chimney liners are not difficult to do if you have a ladder big enough to get up onto the roof. A 5 to 7 inch liner good for 25 feet will cost less than $400 and can be done in a couple of hours or less. As a plumber, I use to have the homeowners call a chimney guy to do the liners, but once I learned they made more money installing the liner in a couple of hours than I made in two days installing the new boiler, I started doing the liners myself.
I was faced with a similar issue about a year ago. We went with a tankless heater fueled by propane and love it. We havent filled the tank in going on 10 months. It takes longer to get hot water but its endless.
Other than an odd apartment or two, never had anything but electric hot water heaters. You'll never convince me there's a better solution.
Cave man used fire to heat water. Oil burner no real improvement. Try electric--it's clean, modern heat.
Cool, thanks for the tips! As was correctly guessed, we don't have natural gas here. I have seen those heat pump water heaters, but I still need to do some research and see how efficient they'll be in my basement. My furnace and water heater share the same 10x10 room, with a fresh air vent, and it can get chilly particularly in the winter months. I need to research tank-less as well, that's a great tip!
Electric WH- the bill ain't gonna kill ya, they're simple and you can install yourself
So I'm thinking more and more that I'll switch to one of these hybrid heat pump / electric water heaters.
http://products.geappliances.com/ApplProducts/Dispatcher?REQUEST=Compare&sku=GEH50DEEDSR&sku=GEH50DNSRSA
On sale at Lowes for $1000, less a $400 rebate from the utility company = $600. I already have electric in that area of my basement because of a previous owner, and I can cap off / disable that flue and save the cost of lining it. It should fix my diesel odor issues by removing the source of combustion.
What am I missing? Maybe this thing won't work very well in my basement in the northeast?
