Facts about Hot Water Tanks & Furnaces

Posted by jolie alexa on June 15th, 2018

In many homes, the overall heating system and the hot water tank are two entirely separate systems. However, with certain kinds of furnaces, these two features are combined into one unit. This is common in the case of an oil-fired furnace.

Advantages of a Furnace Hot Water Tank

The most obvious advantage of this kind of furnace system is that you only have one appliance to worry about. As long as your furnace is functional, you'll have a constant supply of hot water. You also won't be paying to heat water that is sitting unused in a water heater tank, since essentially this is an "on demand" style of the hot water heater. This kind of integrated system is usually quite efficient, and very little heat is lost.

Controlling the Water Temperature

However, even though this kind of water heating system can be quite convenient and efficient, there are some special considerations you will want to keep in mind. Typically, this style of water heater doesn't produce as much heated water per minute as most other styles of water heaters. To help alleviate this problem, the outlet pipe for this style of water heater is generally only a half inch in diameter, as compared to the larger three quarter inch pipe that is generally utilized for a standard tank-style water heater. If you have a situation where two people need to use heated water at the same time, you could very well experience a sudden drop in water temperature. If this is an issue in your home, there are ways to help alleviate the problem.

Avoiding Overly Hot Water

One of the other issues that can occur with a furnace Hot water tanks Barrie is overly heated water. Because the water is heated to the same temperature of the furnace, it is not unusual to have heated water at the faucet that is between 140 and 160 degrees. This, of course, can be a dangerous Heating Barrie temperature for water, especially if there are small children in the home. Some people try to solve the problem by lowering the Furnace repair Barrie temperature. However, this is a mistake, because lowering the furnace temperature will reduce the overall efficiency of the furnace and can result in uncomfortable temperatures in your home. Instead, you should control and moderate the temperature of your heated water after it leaves the Fireplaces Barrie.

Conclusion

You can install a mixing valve, which will allow the proper amount of cold water to be mixed in with the hot water, thus achieving the desired temperature of hot water at the faucet.