Can I Use A Tankless Water Heater For Hydronic Heating

I recently spoke with a rinnai engineer about this noting that rinnai also sells combi boilers for space heat and dhw.

Can i use a tankless water heater for hydronic heating.

He said their hydronic air handlers are designed to work with their water heaters. Can you use a hot water tank for infloor hydronic heating or hot water radiators. What you can t do is use a tankless water heater in a closed loop application. A well designed hydronic heating system can be very economical in terms of energy use.

For even greater savings it s possible to install a solar thermal system that will allow the sun to do some of the water heating work. Matter of fact quite a few plumbing companies install them either hydronic only or combo units using a heat exchanger. However it is important to understand that not all of them are suitable for this task. They function similar to the muchkins and copper fin boilers you might be able to pay for two tankless v s one 90 boiler of the same btu rating.

The economics of using a tankless water heater to supply both dhw and heating are also quite attractive. Tankless water heater can be used to produce radiant heating. It seams they know something about it. 1 100 for the tankless heater 1 400 for the pex tubing and 2 400 for the various components controls and fittings.

Designed as whole house alternatives to traditional tank type water heaters or for use as supplements to renewable energy systems including solar and geothermal. Make sure you invest in a high efficiency tankless water heater. This is especially true when a high efficiency tankless water heater is used as the main hot water source. If you don t want to use a boiler you may be able to use a tank style water heater but only in some jurisdictions since using a water heater as a boiler may be a code violation.

Click here to download free schematic plans and to watch a video on how to make it happen. You really only need a maximum of 120 f for your floor. And i would never recommend the use of a tankless water heater for a hydronic space heating system. Tankless heater allowed per code we are allowed to use a tankless heater in this application per our building code.

If you use a tankless as a boiler the warranty will drop drastically from about 10 years on the heat exchanger to 3. You actually have a choice between them as you can use a water heater or tankless for radiant floor heating and not just a boiler. That said it is a cheap btu. With optional equipment it can be used as a single heat source in combination systems for potable hot water and radiant heating.