Hey guys. I am building a new one story home in Florida with a nice size garage for my toys and storage area above. As this is my first opportunity at using natural gas vs. electric for appliances I have a question. My house plans call for the water heater to be in the garage and subject to all kinds of fumes and flamable liquids from my toys and gas cans. My wife is concerned that I might blow us up with having the gas water heater in the garage. As best I can tell code requires the unit be 18" above the floor and vented through the roof. Is there a safety issue I should worry about? I want a tanked unit and the only other options are tankless on the outside (expensive) and/or back to an electric one.
They make water heaters that have sealed burner compartments and pull outside air for combustion. Just get a water heater designed to be in a garage and you should be fine.
you arent going to pull enough fumes in to blow anything up. ive been around gas heaters and gas furnaces in a garages. they only ignite when you use them unless you get an old one with a standing pilot and the burner portion is sealed off for that reason. go tankless fyi.
In looking at my floor plans the water heater location shows it would go right next to an electric freezer unit. I also don't see any in looking at Lowes or Home Depot that's listed for specifically the garage, will take another look.
I was looking at the A.O Smith brand sold at Lowes. Models 816111, 962544,962556. I should add the water heater is for Natural Gas not Propane.
the great thing about a standard gas water heater is when the power goes out you still have hot water. You don't get that with a heat pump water heater or with a tankless water heater. Even the standard gas water heater is pretty efficient
Ours has an exhaust fan so when the power goes out we would eventually run out of hot water since the fan won’t operate. The unit won’t ignite if the exhaust opus blocked either. Has not been a problem though at least here in MN.
Thanks for the input guys. Like I said the wife's main concern is blowing up the house. Seems she read into some Google opinions and pictures! Don't see the same possible issues with the fireplace, dryer or even the propane gas line I am having run to the patio. Garage and venting issues seems to be topics on Google.
you can get tankless units that have a flow igniter and the water causes it to ignite the gas. either way its a small ignitor that takes very little power if you run a generator.
From what little I know from research I see that the outside tankless units are the safest. That said they seem to be way expensive with all the extra install cost when trying to make them duplicate a tanked unit and they do not work during a power outage unless backed up by something. I do plan on having the ability to run my generator thru the house by an outside hook up. Trying to balance cost with safety and convienance.
Sister and brother in law live full time in Fl. Just got a new house. The gas water heater is on the outside of their garage. Here in NY I hav e a propane fireplace. It vents outside thru a plastic pipe.
...if power off long enough to need to heat water, it only draws 500W. We live beyond gas/water, and before I went with heat pump HW heater, I could run well or water heater along with essentials on my 7/12K backup genny, not both. Been using one for 10 years. Works for our lifestyle, doubt a large family would be happy with recovery time and would need to run hybrid mode, negating electricity savings...
My understanding is that all gas water heaters since 2004 have sealed combustion chambers. If fume combustion is a big concern, your furnace and water heater could have a closet built around them, accessible from the garage, with combustion air coming into the closet from outside as well as the vent through the roof. Inside the closet would have to have fire code drywall etc. You would need to check local codes. Still have to be 18" above the floor. FWIW, I have been using Rheem water heaters for over 15 years, very reliable.
No way you'll blow anything up or get CO poisoning (it should be vented to outside but no need for a power vented unit). Tell her to worry about something else. I love my wife dearly but she wouldn't know what to do if she didn't have something to worry about.
i have a tankless install was no different than any other unit. it is inside the house though. paid under 300 for it runs 3 showers. i did the install myself. outside seems like a bad idea since you run the risk of pipes freezing.
Precisely what I was going to say. One of the projects on my short list is to replace my old resistance-type water heater with (probably) a 50-gallon Rheem heat-pump heater. I believe that there is a federal tax rebate on the purchase of a heat pump water heater. I'm not sure of this, but I believe that I read somewhere that the tax rebate expires at the end of the year.
If considering the type of heat pump unit that goes inline with the A/C condenser, bad idea. Great at first but will fail much sooner than expected. Water quality plays a huge part in how long it last.
