Is a 100 gallon Electric Hot Water Tank big enough?
I am renovating 4 one bedroom apartments.Is a 100 gallon Electric Water Heater big enough for 4 apartments? Electric Hot Water heaters seem to have a slow recovery, should I upgrade to one of the Commercial units which are much more expensive?
I am renovating 4 one bedroom apartments.Is a 100 gallon Electric Water Heater big enough for 4 apartments? Electric Hot Water heaters seem to have a slow recovery, should I upgrade to one of the Commercial units which are much more expensive?
Not a perfect answer, but some data for you to consider:
We have a 50-gallon gas water heater, and it’s been enough for a 3 family house for the 3 years we’ve owned it.
Total humans in the building: 7 (5 adults, 2 kids)
Total dishwashers: 3
Total bathtubs: 2
Total washing machines: 1
Total bathrooms: 4
Total complaints re: not enough hot water: zero
Good luck with your project.
This might be a case for a heat-pump water heater, expensive up front but not so to operate. See another post last week here. No sure about capacity.
As a LL, I think it’s common for heat & h/w to be included in small buildings. The majority of tenants are not wastrels.
Tankless w/hdo not save much, especially electric (because standby loss is lower for electric w/h than gas). Maybe 10-15% and then each apt will need a 200A+ service which will kill you.
– small electric hot water tanks are terrible for apartments with more than one person in it: after the first hot shower, it will take a good hour before someone else can go next. Expect complaints and possibly experience a tenant retention issues because of it.
– coned’s bill for a big electric hot water heaters will put a considerable dent in your rental income…
you might want to check out the tank-less electric heaters to be installed in each unit or one large gas tank for all units. The Gas bill would be on you, but shouldn’t be too high.
Almost every place I ever stayed in Europe had small hot water heaters in every unit. I assuming each unit had their own electric unit. I seen plenty of units in alphabet city that have 120v 25gal units stuck up under the kitchen cabinets or above the bathtub built into a soffit.
Hey Carraiq: This is an interesting and not uncommon 2-part dilemma:
1st, it’s obvious that nobody uses an electric HWH unless they have no other choice, however, I have seen lots of loft apartments that had them because there was simply no legal way to flue a fossil-fuel-burning unit.
2nd, I’d like to address your generosity at rolling the utility charge for hot water into the rent: most rental owners / developers that I’ve worked with avoid that like the plague. They know that most rental tenants won’t conserve anything that is included in their rent. You will experience the necessary rent increment to cover these utilities as an unreimbursed charge against your net operating income. Rental tenants tend to think primarily of the rent alone, and this increment will make your rents seem higher than other apartments, even if you’re actually passing along a good value. Everybody I know would seek to put all tenant-specific charges on the individual tenant meters even if that meant giving each tenant a 40-gal. heater of their own!
Good luck with your project.
There is no gas in the building. Also the ground and second floor are occcupied by a busy store which makes running pipes difficult.I want the apartments to pay their own heat, but it is wasteful to have everybody heating hot water all day. Also I don’t know if I want hot water heaters in each apartment in case they leak. I was wondering if it might be easier to supply the hot water. The apartments will pay good rent, so I don’t mind paying the electric bill for the hot water.
Also, is there a venting problem that would force you to go electric?
Why electric and not gas? Is there no gas in the building?
Great question! You are about to be deluged with comments (well, maybe not deluged) telling you that electric will cause you to go broke. And they may be right. I can’t say for sure. But what is interesting and possibly helpful is that NYSERDA published a report in 2008 regarding the most effective use of solar thermal for domestic hot water use. What they found was that NYC and Long Island are the two best places in the entire state to produce hot water using solar energy and that the most effective system is flat panel solar collectors in conjunction with an ELECTRIC backup tank.
Who would have thunk it!
Contact us if you are interested in learning more about solar thermal and how to save your existing tank.
-SteamMan