Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Why electric?

Back in 82 I was building a new house and wanted a better water heater. I found a tankless heater made in France by Aquastar. This heater mounts on the wall and turns on only when water is flowing. I got the large size and it gave about 4gpm (2 showers plus a dishwasher) at about 120 degrees. It lasted 25 years.
 
It was a bit pricey but I loved it so much I got the dealership for Puerto Rico. That was an experience. I never was too successful. People here were completely unfamiliar with and dubious of gas water heaters even though they already used gas for cooking. I did a presentation to the gas dealers association. I figured they were a natural since it would double their gas sales. Nope. "Our customers don't know about it." 

Marey, a local Puerto Rican company has been making similar systems here since 1955. My son got me one so we could have hot water while we have no power. He has had one in his house for a while. We both have the smallest, "portable" model though we have them permanently mounted. Plenty of how water for his family of 4. 

Only $179.

They also have larger models that are suitable for commercial apps. 

https://marey.com/english/products/gas-water-heaters/portable/gas-portable.html

This brings me to a larger subject. Why do we have so many electrical appliances in PR? Cost of electricity is high, it makes no sense to pay 23c per KWH to make heat when we can burn cheaper propane directly. 

Propane cost is $16/20# tank. (Larger tanks are cheaper.) That equates to about 12.5 c/kwh or about half of electric. 

PREPA has a huge generation problem with not enough to keep the lights on in PR. A lot of that generation goes to water heaters,  stoves and clothes driers. 

We should be changing them all to propane. 

Its the patriotic thing to do.







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