Always learning...

It's been quite some time since I last wrote... my apologies! It's amazing how quickly the summer can come and go. Here we are - already on the cusp of fall!

With the onslaught of cooler weather, I've learned a couple of things about my new HVAC equipment.

The first... our new high-efficiency propane furnace is sooooo quiet! I remember having guests over during the holidays last winter and their look of alarm when the old furnace would fire up. It would rattle and shake the floors - it sounded like the house was trying to take flight! We decided to give the furnace a try on one of the chilly nights this week (I know... in August!!) - and loved it. I didn't have to turn the TV up - didn't have pictures rattling on the walls - what a treat!

The second... an instantaneous tankless hot water heater does not mean instant hot water out of your taps. (Hmmm, that sounds pretty straight forward now that I write it.... but I always thought otherwise!)

Tankless water heaters aren't for everyone - and we originally debated getting one for ourselves. In the end, we decided it would make sense for a household like ours. It was on a particularly cold morning when I was waiting for the water in the shower to get warm enough to hop in that I questioned the inner workings of our heater.

Now that I understand how it works - I'm not sure how I thought otherwise! Basically, an instantaneous tankless hot water heater means that as soon as you call upon hot water - it's instantly hot. Why you don't instantly feel that hot water from your taps is because it still needs to travel through the pipes to the tap. Once you have the hot water - it will stay that way indefinitely because you're not pulling the water from a storage tank (hence the tankless part). This is good news for some - bad news for others (i.e. parents of kids notorious for getting out of the shower only once they run out of hot water!)

While this information may not be news to most of you - it did make me realize that an important part of research is understanding! It's easy to become misguided when it comes to equipment we may not all understand - and that can lead to false expectations or disappointment.

Talk to a professional - ask questions - get informed!

Thanks Ben - you're a great teacher!