4 ms·
Why are these illegal?
by tomasien 8y ago
Why are these illegal?
- Fronzie 8y agoThey are illegal above a certain capacity. I assume that's because to large storage is wasteful: heat will leak without being used efficiently.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- rocqua 8y agoIn general, the bigger the tank, the better the 'skin to volume ratio'. Hence I'd expect less % per second of loss. The total wattage of loss would still be higher though.
- chongli 8y agoBut that's not how heat works. A larger water tank has a higher volume-to-surface-area ratio. This makes larger tanks more efficient than smaller ones, not less. This is why elephants need such large ears. Their bodies are otherwise incredibly efficient at retaining heat. Those massive, thin, flappy ears provide them with a way to expose their blood to a much larger surface area of skin.
- skosch 8y agoYour average household uses somewhere between 30 and 60 gallons of hot water a day [0], and a bigger tank will just have water sitting in it, going cold. Any extra surface area costs you extra heat, even if the marginal loss decreases with growing tank volumes. [0] http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/publications/pdf/FSEC-PF-464-15.pdf http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/publications/pdf/FSEC-PF-464-15.p...
- Xylakant 8y agoYou can use warm water to power your heating in winter. So it might be less efficient in summer, but the amount of energy you’d save in winter would exceed the losses in summer.
- Tharkun 8y agoPerhaps legionnaires' disease has something to do with it instead?
- skosch 8y agoThey aren't anymore. This article is from 2014; the rule was amended a year later to make an exception for grid-enabled electric water heaters.[0] [0] https://www.phcppros.com/articles/5312-water-heater-regulations https://www.phcppros.com/articles/5312-water-heater-regulati...
- tomasien 8y agoGreat - and as I understand it the original ban was for efficiency reasons that don't apply here