If your service yard adjoins to your bathroom (where the central piping inlet is located), then you can install a gas central heater in the service yard and extend the hot water pipe to bathroom. You have to drill a hole though so be careful that you do not damage any concealed piping as the cost to repair it will be astronomical. You have to also lay gas piping to the service yard. Check out City Gas for their range of gas heaters.
If your service yard is not adjoined to your bathroom, then an electric tankless heaters is your best bet. One such example is the Bennington C600. It is small and considered affordable at approximately $280.
Take note that a tankless central heater is not a perfect solution and here's why. For one, it is not absolutely instant. Depending on the location of the heater and the length of piping it has to go through before it reaches the outlet, there will be a delay. However, this applies to any centralised heaters as well. So if you have never used a centralised heater before, this is expected. You will also see a drop in the water pressure. For most cases, this should not be an issue as no one uses boiling water in huge flow unless they want to scald themselves. So most likely, after mixing with cold water, the pressure should be just right, at a temperature most people use to shower or wash up. However, if it is an issue for you, it can be easily remedied by changing the shower heads or installing water saving devices onto the tap which will increase the pressure accordingly. Though it may be an inconvenience and even additional investments, the savings (both electricity and water) later on should make up for it. Whichever type of heaters you decide on, you may want to have heated waters in the kitchen or even the service yard since you already have a centralised heater. However, as far as I know, HDB flats with concealed piping do not extend to the kitchen and service yard. In this case you have, again, three ways to go about it. 1. You can extend and lay additional piping from your central water heater to the kitchen. This option saves you the cost of another heater but make sure that
- the piping works does not cost more than the heater
- piping works are not unsightly. 2. Another way is to install another heater near the outlet to minimise any exposed piping. If you only need heated water for the kitchen sink, you can actually install it under the sink as show below
A storage heater is too big in this case therefore only tankless heater is possible. Since gas tankless heater cannot be installed in confined spaces like the cabinet under the sink, an electric tankless heater is the only option. In this case, the Bennington C600 will again be suitable. Though it will cost you another initial investment, this can be justified if: 1. Additional piping will cost just as much 2. Additional piping cannot be concealed and will look unsightly. However, do take note that you may need to lay a new wiring to support a higher ampere rating depending on the heater you choose. The Bennington C600 on a 13A socket can only run at mid power (3kW). It runs at a max of 4.5kW and requires a 20A socket. All the above options depends on the cost and aesthetic results. So below is a summary of all the available type of heaters
Heater type | Heating | Comments |
Point of use (normally called 'instant heater') | Electrical | Pros: Simple to fix without the need for expensive piping Cons: Needs one for every outlet |
Centralised Storage (normally called 'storage heaters) | Electrical | Pros: No drop in water pressure Cons: Bulky, inefficient power usage and not on-demand. |
Centralised Tankless (or called multipoint heaters') | Electrical | Pros: Small, efficient, available on-demand Cons: Drop in water pressure |
Centralised Tankless (normally called 'gas heaters') | Gas | Pros: Similar to its electrical cousin. Cons: Similar to its electrical cousin. May need to connect to an electrical point for ignition. Can only be installed in a non confined space. Additional gas piping required. |
31 comments:
Storage heaters, or heat banks, are highly useful devices, as you've outlined, but it is important you know what you are looking for, as there's a large variety of heaters on the market.
A very insightful and useful blog. A great reference point for anyone looking to enquire into storage heaters.
Great Stuff.
Thanks for discussing on water heaters. I feel lucky myself to be in that era where great innovation made for tankless water heater and other home comfort appliances. I have Rinnai tankless water heater and in winter cold days it performs so well.
A very brief descriptive info you have shared here regarding water heaters, I personally like Nortiz tankless water heaters because of their fast water heating efficiency, thanks a lot for sharing this info.
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This information is very nice High Efficiency Furnace
Hey There,
Thanks for your very useful post. Looking to get a heater for our new BTO, your blog was excellent, I am off to the Bennigton shop this weekend.
Again Good stuff mate
Good article and personal experiences. I have been waiting for quite sometime to decide on which water heater to use. Staying in low level floors and taking advantage of the laid concealed pipes in HDB BTO, the centralized electric heater is the way to go. Thanks man!
I Muhd Nurhidayat,
All HDB BTO owners should install a centralised heater. It makes no sense not to. The only question is which type to install.
Glad you found this article useful.
Hi, you mentioned newer BTOs already have concealed piping and wiring. May I know how to tell from which year I should look at when purchasing a resale flat?
Anything after 2003 is a pretty safe bet.
Hi,my flat was installed with centralised heater since 18yrs ago...i will like to change it to POU...do u have any idea will that required addition pipes and what kind of complication i might encounter...?
Hi. You will need to change your mixers if you plan to remove the central heater. Else just turn the central heater off permanently and install POU heaters just like you are installing a new shower head. One thing for sure is you will need to have a power supply nearby for the POU to tap on.
Thanks!
Look HDB isnt ever gonna put in a water heater for you, we personally use panasonic water heaters and they r not too shabby. Just that water doesnt get hot enough sometimes!
This post is so informative and makes a very nice image on the topic in my mind. It is the first time I visit your blog, but I was extremely impressed. Keep posting as I am gonna come to read it everyday!Seek Home Comfort
Incredible post.
The article has really peaks my interest. I am going to bookmark your site and preserve checking for new information.
Great article Lot's of information to Read...Great Man Keep Posting and update to People..Thanks Water heater repair Lake Elsinore
Am interested on your multipoint POU heater. Pls advise piping layout and what taps/valves do I need to use your Bennington multipoint POU for both the shower and bathroom sink?
Thks.
John
Nice sharing very informative, I would like to say thanks to the entire team for doing such a great job, really very nice and informative.
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Good article and personal experiences. I have been waiting for quite sometime to decide on which water heater to use, by reading this article i got a clarity thank you man, I would also like to recommend you go with Civil defense approval in dxb
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