I have two questions I am hoping you wonderful people might be able to answer.

#1 Does anyone have a tankless hot water heater and if you do, do you like it, was it expensive and does it live up to the manufacturers hype?

#2 Does anyone know if having a wood cookstove on an unheated porch in the winter, then lighting a fire in the stove, will damage the cast iron or the porcelan facing?

Thank you in advance and have a wonderful day!

-- Cordy (ckaylegian@aol.com), December 10, 2001

Answers

#2 It will not hurt the stove. When you start the fire it will warm up slowly. Plus the cast iron and porcelan have been through a fireing process with more heat than you will have in it. Jim

-- Jim Raymond (jimr@terraworld.net), December 10, 2001.

Cordy: Jim is right, the cast and the rest of stove heat up rather slowly and will not be damaged at all. The only problem I have encountered with a cold stove in a very cold space is the stove may smoke a bit when first building a fire. Tim

-- Tim Price (thprice60@hotmail.com), December 10, 2001.

#1 question: I just ask that question about a week ago and got some very good answers, just go to the bottom of page to older messages, click on where it says "Water" and there will be 3 to 4 different threads on tankless water heaters. The most recent will be on the top of the list.

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), December 10, 2001.

That is a relief! I really want to put the stove in the kitchen, (last time it was in the basement), but I also need to think of safety issue and the porch was originally a patio so the floor is concrete and we would only have to put up a sheet of fire proofing on the back wall. It is next to the kitchen so that will be ok. Besides, then my husband has to go through the kitchen ceiling and the roof peak to put in a chimney, this way, just through the porch roof.

Thank you again.

-- Cordy (ckaylegian@aol.com), December 10, 2001.

Cordy,

Check the thread from last week regarding tankless water heaters. I put one in this past summer and it lives up to expectations. We had a period of adjustment, but it works great. I run out to the LP tank regularly to marvel at how littel the level has dropped since the last inspection. There's nothing like saving money to make you feel satisfied that your achieving your homesteading goals. And to that end, let me also add that I've followed the advise of other posts regarding laundry soap. I still can't get over the fact that the stuff I made up cleans clothes as well as that $6/gal liquid detergent I was buying. And for the cost of less that 50 cents a gallon.

Dwight (in CA)

-- Dwight (summit1762@aol.com), December 10, 2001.

I assume you are speaking of the on-demand hot water heaters run on gas. We put one in 6 years ago when we put plumbing in our house. It is wonderful! You just can't run out of hot water, plus you don't have a huge tank of hot water sitting around cooling off, so your use of gas is much much less. It costs us $15 - 20 to have hot water for a month....maybe less. We also have a gas stove and a gas dryer.

-- Mary R. (cntryfolk@ime.net), December 10, 2001.

We have a tankless water heater run on propane & love it. It was initially more expensive but actually running it is cheap. The only drawback is not being able to set the temp. It's scalding.

-- Bonnie (stichart@plix.com), December 11, 2001.

Thank you everyone for your response. I did go into the archives and pulled more info. My husband now has to sift through it all.

Everyone is always so helpful.

-- Cordy (ckaylegian@aol.com), December 11, 2001.

You can get hot-and-cold-mixing taps that control the max.temperaure of the water coming through - you could use a couple of those for shower and bath.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), December 11, 2001.

Where my husband works, they are remodeling and he was talking to the plumber today about the tankless water heaters. Looks like we will be able to get one wholesale.

A freebee today! The old jeep with snowplow the shop used for plowing snow died last year and today the owner told my husband he could have the snow plow. Don't know if it will fit on a tractor but it will sure fit on the truck.

Live is wonderful!!

-- Cordy (ckaylegian@aol.com), December 11, 2001.