We are using propane tankless Marey water heaters in our house. We have one in the bathroom and will have one for the kitchen. Yes, there is a reason why we have two smaller ones, instead of one bigger water heater. We plan to build a recycling shower system and need a water heater just for the shower. That whole deal with be a post on its own but we are very excited to see if we can get it working like we plan.
We got ours from Amazon. We payed about $170.00 and the reviews from others using them were good. Most people that go with propane use a Marey unit. We went with the 5L unit.
First thing...we had to cut a hole in our roof...again! Everyone knows this makes me extremely nervous.
Such a pretty view through the hole. Still doesn't stop me from being a ball of nerves about this process.
We made a cardboard template for the piece of roofing material that will seal the flashing boot on the roof. The finished piece cut and ready.
The boot slides up under the roof. This goes around the pipe to help keep it from leaking.
The roofing piece goes over the boot and original roof. It is sealed with rubber gasket roofing screws and silicone caulk.
The angled pipe in place. The pipe rotates around in two places to fit your needs.
The water heater attached and the collar on the ceiling to keep the pipe from touching and cover up the hole. We built a couple of wood shims to keep the unit from touching the wall and stained them the same color as the sink cabinet.
The pipe finished on the outside. A solid piece exits the boot and ends with a vent cap on top. There is a storm collar just above the boot to keep heavy water away from where the pipe and boot meet.
Gas line and water lines are hooked up. There are shut off valves on each. The water lines also have capped areas where we can cut the water off and hook up hoses to clean the unit when it needs it. Everything we have read says that you need to clean your unit every now and then due to calcium and mineral build up that slows the heating down. You can buy service valves already made but they seem to be for bigger units. We made ours out of standard plumbing parts.
We also got the sink drain plumbing done as well. This is a shot looking up under the cabinet. We used a drain vent on our sink...funny looking thing off to the right side of the picture. This cuts out having to vent your drain lines through the roof.
We bought some small fans to install in the bedroom for air movement across the bed to help on those hot Georgia summers. They are hard wired into a switch on the wall but can also be turned off individually. Each fan has a low, medium and high setting and the angle can be adjusted for individual preference. These were cheap fans we got at the hardware store and just screwed them to the ceiling. They are pretty quiet and pretty powerful on the low setting. They should work great at keeping us cool.
