Do you want RS-232 integration for On Demand Heaters?

shenandoah75

Active Member
I contacted Rinnai on this and they were very nice and polite in getting me an answer to whether there were any plans to build a serial interface to their two-wire protocol... Answer was:

"As of right now Rinnai is not planning on incorporating this. I will pass your comment along and perhaps if market demand becomes great enough, a change may be incorporated."


Maybe i'm the only one who would find this useful, but i see a few justifications:

1) i don't need to put a (proprietary) panel at every location i might like to change the temp without walking to the laundry room (master bath for shower/whirlpool , kids bath, kitchen, laundry)

2) with the lock out feature they have on their controls, this could be a real nice safety feature to put into RS-232. for example, if no motion in master bath, or via a function key when leaving, etc, have the elk initiate a lock from that unit setting the temp at 110/120 degrees to prevent burns.

3) shut the unit off in vacation mode


Anyway - if there others who use Rinnai or think this is a plus, please chime in and i can direct them to this thread

thx
-brad
 
Meaning the actual water heater itself?

FWIW, that's exactly how life is in India. When I go there, you have to turn on the heater 20mins before you shower. My grandmother will bitch you out if you leave it on after you're done (unless someone else is about to get in) as you're running up her bill and electricity is expensive there.

That would certainly be an interesting idea, in 5-10 years when my hot water heater dies i'd buy one. Just bought it 5 years ago though, damn thing certainly cost enough that I don't want another one until it's absolutely necessary.
 
Meaning the actual water heater itself?

FWIW, that's exactly how life is in India. When I go there, you have to turn on the heater 20mins before you shower. My grandmother will bitch you out if you leave it on after you're done (unless someone else is about to get in) as you're running up her bill and electricity is expensive there.

That would certainly be an interesting idea, in 5-10 years when my hot water heater dies i'd buy one. Just bought it 5 years ago though, damn thing certainly cost enough that I don't want another one until it's absolutely necessary.

In Europe they use "on demand" water heaters (gas or electric) since energy costs are very high. They are available here and becoming more popular. I put one in a year and a half ago and I save about $500 a year on my gas bill. Hot water takes about 5 or 10 seconds longer than a conventionel water heater but you never run out.

They are very expensive to install but supposedly last longer. I bought the parts ($650) and did it myself. I also got a $300 tax rebate/credit so it really only cost me $350 and a long weekend to do all of the plumbing etc. T
 
IVB, I think you're thinking tank-based... i mean tankless... (oops digger caught this before i complete the post- sorry)

www.foreverhotwater.com


I've had their R70 for almost a year and it's truly instantanious.. Only problem is getting water from the heater to the faucet over long plumbing runs (but this is the same even with a tank). This took over a minute in my house in some locations, so i installed one of the following gems under one of the sinks in the master bath (on far side of the house). I will be wiring push puttons into the Elk in the kitchen and kids bath to fire the same pump via a relay eventually. (there's cheaper units that do the same thing, but the main one "Cricket"? is supposed to be really loud)

www.gothotwater.com


Back to the control issue, what i want to avoid is having four of these suckers (one at each hot water drop):

http://www.foreverhotwater.com/controls.php

-brad
 
So Digger, since you own oen (rinnai or not) would you think tying into home automation would be useful?

There is nothing to automate. You turn the faucet on and it turns the heater on. You turn the faucet off and it turns the heater off.
 
It seems to me the only benefit of automation is for remote temperature programming. Since you would only set it once I'm not sure I see much need for that.
 
Ya temp was my thinking... i guess i see a bigger need for this than most based on your posts... (the wife would set it higher for dish washing than normal standby for kids, and even higher when mixing with cold water for a whirlpool bath) - i actually have a second control to install in our master bath for that purpose...

anyways, i guess another crazy idea which is why rinnai sees no market demand

-brad
 
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