The most efficient way to heat your radiant in-floor and domestic hot water is with a water-to-water geothermal heat pump. If you would also like air-conditioning too, use a triple function geothermal heat pump; full capacity hot water for radiant in floor and domestic hot water as well as forced air for both heating & cooling. Divide your electrical rate by the COP of the GSHP to determine the cost per kW. ItÂs usually a factor of 3.5~5. Geothermal has the highest initial cost but the money goes directly into the value of your home. Geo also has the lowest operating & lifecycle cost and highest user satisfaction rate. Did I mention GREEN? After opening the link below, click 'Products' then click 'TR-Series', then download the R410a Models pdf. SR Here is a link that might be useful: Nordic Triple Function Series GSHP

Nice price on electricity. I pay at least twice that. Here are some numbers for you, based on your figures: A kilowatt of electricity is about 3,413 BTUs, and is $0.0636, which works out to be 53,660 BTUs per dollar. Electricity is 100% efficient, meaning that there are no combustion losses that go up the chimney at your house. Propane has about 92,000 BTUs per gallon, and is $2.50 gallon, which works out to be about 36,800 BTUs per dollar. Your existing water heater is prolly on the order of 60% efficient, which means that 40% of the BTUs out of a gallon of propane end up going up the chimney, and not in your house. As such, you are getting about 22,000 BTUs per dollar out of it. If you went with a new water heater, such as the Polaris which is 95% efficient, you would be getting about 34,900 BTUs per dollar after combustion losses. Based on your posted information, electricity would be about 65% the cost of propane for heating with a 95% efficiency water heater, and 41% of the cost of propane using your existing water heater. An electric water heater won't work because they donÂt produce enough BTUs to keep up with the demand on the house. But an electric boiler might, depending on the model and how manu BTUs your house requires to keep it warm on the coldest day of the year. An electric boiler will require a lot of electricity, though, prolly on the order of 100 amps. A 200 amp electric service to your house would be the minimum needed to run the electric boiler. You still need to address the ducting losses through your attic. If yours are anything like mine were, that is half the problem right there.

alisande, I'll have to admit, as the new information comes to light, it does raise some questions in my thinking. However, from what you describe so far, I suspect you are ok for the moment. Your original problem seems to have been air in the system as the others described. However, and only going by your description and no technical data, it did appear to take more time to bring the water to a temperature you were satisfied with. After you readjusted the thermostat it appeared to be more to your liking. My conclusion is, your cousin didn't run the water temperature as high as you do. Maybe he has kids he doesn't want to scald themselves, maybe it was to save energy, whatever his reasons. A 50 gallon tank is a pretty good sized tank for 1 person and I think if you kept the temp around 115-120 degrees, you wouldn't run out of hot water if everything is working fine. But again, there are good reasons to run the temp. higher. My advice at this point pretty much follows your line of thinking. If everything is to your satisfaction, there's nothing to fix. Let us know if anything new develops, the more information you can give up front, the better answers you will get. I think most of the folks here gave you enough info. that you know several areas to look or have someone to look at to do some trouble shooting before blowing the whistle. You'll eventually be the hot water expert in your area. As for Iris, there are 3 reasons for the tag. Making a living these days requires a job and as many hustles as one can handle. 1-I grow approx. 3 acres of rare types of Bearded Iris. Many get sold, many get processed for the perfume industry and many get processed as medicinal Oris Root. Motion photography and filming is another area of endeavor. Someone touched on another area in one of the forums so I figured they must have known me. Now of course there is no way for me to spend full time in all these areas and my profession also so others now actually work them. I just usually pi$$ them off from time to time when I come around and start playing with stuff since to me, these are hobbies.

Could this be a leak? Yes, it could. But there are other possibilities that replacing the heater will not cure. A leak, especially from a gas water heater, is highly unlikely to be intermittent. Thus the water at the bottom would continue to become greater. Nothing in the description indicates that to be the case. If the water supply is municipal, this is the time when the incoming water supply gets quite cold, just above freezing. Long hot showers are enjoyed and if a heater is set at 120 degrees, almost all of the flow from the shower head is from the heater. The flue gases from burned natural gas are, by volume, 2/3 water vapor and 1/3 carbon dioxide. That flue gas water will condense upon contacting cold surface--- just like the outside surface of a cold drinking glass. Turning the heater from 120 to 140 for a few days is a simple sensible test to determine if the water is condensation. If it is condensation, and the heater is replaced, and the condensation continues-- your landlord will not be pleased at the unnecessary expenditure.