3 ms·
I wish it was easy to buy a gas hot water heater that also had a few coils of copper in it so I could plumb in whatever kind of energy harvesting heat source I
by msandford 5y ago
I wish it was easy to buy a gas hot water heater that also had a few coils of copper in it so I could plumb in whatever kind of energy harvesting heat source I could come up with. It'd be great to tap into the heat my AC throws off, or a closed loop solar thermal panel, or both!
- lostapathy 5y agoIt really is a shame that HVAC contractors want to mark up more efficient or "exotic" options so much higher than the "base" option. I had my AC replaced a few years back for like $3500, with "least efficient we can legally sell". Doing anything else was going to double the price, even though the wholesale cost difference to the next step up was under 20% of that.
- msandford 5y agoYeah that's awful. "Value pricing" I suppose. I wouldn't mind it if there was an easy-enough way to DIY so as to "route around the problem" but with the licensing requirements you can't really.
- lostapathy 5y agoTo a degree - I get contractor reluctance. Most people don't care to spend more to do better, so they're never going to have much of an install base to build knowledge from. So they're probably estimating high because of unknowns, and also partly because bidding on higher-end packages just isn't as competitive. I'd really just like to order my own equipment and pay an HVAC company's "day rate" to come out and install it, and I'll deal with surprises or warranty issues.