As the name suggest these types of hot water systems do not have a tank and therefore do not store hot water. Often referred to as instant or continuous flow hot water service’s these units supply hot water on demand and do not hold hot water in a reservoir costing unnecessary money in utility bills by heating hot water that you may not require.
Continuous flow hot water services such as the Thermann tankless system are typically powered by gas whether it be natural gas or lpg. These systems require a large volume of gas for the period in which they run due to the instant nature in which they produce hot water. If your home did not previously have instant gas hot water installed it may be that getting an instant system installed will require modifications to your gas pipes in the property.
See our article on hot water system prices.
Continuous Flow Hot Water Systems
Tankless hot water systems are quite often installed outside of the property on an external wall and today all new installs in the domestic market must be of a 5-star energy rating minimum. There are also some models which can be installed inside of the home or building but these units come with quite particular criteria which must be met in order to comply with the manufacturers recommendations and also Australian Standards.
The way in which an instant hot water service works is that the cold water enters from the bottom of the unit and travels through a series of pipes which run around a component inside of the hot water service called the heat exchanger. As the name implies the heat exchanger converts the cold water into hot water.
This task is performed by a furnace located inside the middle of the heat exchanger producing heat via a flame to the heat exchanger which has the water travelling through it. By the time the water has finished passing through to the top of the heat exchanger it has been converted from cold water to hot water. This is a very simply explanation of what happens inside of a tankless hot water system, there are many computer controlled devices and sensors inside of today’s modern instant hot water system which help control flow, temperature, pressures and volume to ensure the system performs to its optimal 5-star energy rating.
Older models from the instant hot water range used to have pilot lights. The technology then evolved to battery and hydro powered ignition. Today you will see that all current hot water systems being introduced to the plumbing market in Adelaide will require a power point for the source of ignition to instigate the furnace.
Environmentally Friendly Systems
In order to now create an even more environmentally conscious continuous flow hot water service manufacturers such as Rheem are gradually rolling out a fantastic new piece of technology to the Adelaide Hot Water market which is titled slow start. The slow start technology only allows a maximum flow of hot water through the outlet tap once the heat exchanger inside of the system reaches its optimal operating temperature.
This process usually only takes a few seconds from cold to hot, but by doing this it is reducing the amount of unusable water being delivered to the user who is after hot water. Through developing this advancement in hot water supply manufacturers are able to achieve energy ratings stepping up to nearly 7-stars, a huge improvement from the very first instant hot water units which were rated around 4-starsh.
Also see our information on solar hot water installation, electric hot water systems, and heat pump systems.