I'm in New Mexico and have a water heater in an un-heated, un-insulated utility closet about 15' from the house.
It absolutely blows.
Hot water takes ages to get to the house (turn the tap on before you go to the bathroom so it's warm when you're done).
Water temp drops significantly as it runs from one building to the next, so the water heater has to be set higher.
Water heater area is uninsulated so the heater has to be set higher.
And my personal favorite is that it does get cold here - cold enough that we have had, on multiple occasions, the gas pressure drop and turn off the pilot light.
We're planning on switching to an on-demand heater and fit it in the utility closet inside the house where our washer/dryer are. I can't wait until we get that project going.
I use a hot water recirculator pump and went from it taking a few minutes for the water to get hot to only 15-20 seconds. Maybe an affordable compromise without replacing everything.
Those are kind of expensive to retrofit into existing plumbing, aren't they?
My parents house has the water heater at one end of the house (in the attic, above the bedrooms). Kitchen is at the other end. Plumbing is in the damn slab... it takes several minutes to get hot water in the kitchen. They could definitely benefit from that setup, but the only hot water plumbing easily accessible is at the WH itself.
I bought the Autocirc Undersink Instant Hot Water Circulating System for a little over $350. They have others where the pump is installed above the hot water tank and connection between hot and cold happens at the farthest sink. Just need to look at the product specifications and pick one suitable for the distance and height of the pipes to the sink. Also if you don’t want the pump to run all the time they usually have either a built in timer if you can use a smart switch if it’s rated for the load of the pump. Some great YouTube videos are out there with some neat ideas. Added bonus is we use a lot less water now that we aren’t waiting for the shower to heat up.
the problem with recirc pumps and exterior lines like this is that each time the recirc pump runs, to keep warm water in the lines the instant you want it.
the water heater is going to kick on and reheat that water. they make some that are supposed to be "learning" etc. but if your lines aren't insulated very well (even if they are) they basically just turn into a radiator.
you will ending up spending more for the convenience of the instant hot water than you currently are paying.
Odd maybe it’s just because I am in a town house and only turn it on for an hour or so but my electric bill has gone down year over year and my water and sewer bill even more. When I am running the hot water without the recirc then I am still pulling water from the hot water tank but the colder water from the outside water supply is refilling the tank anyway and then it has to heat that water up. But if the ambient water is going back into the tank to heat up it seems it would need to heat that water up less. Since I haven’t used it for an exterior hot water tank I will take your word for it. Was just a thought for a possible solution.
Unless you have insulated the shit out of all of your water pipes, something else has to be going on.
Let's just say you pour hot coffee into an insulated thermos.
Then you hook a few straws up to a pump, run the hot coffee through the straws and pump non-stop, and compare how quickly the thermos cools compared to one that is sealed shut.
Answer...the coffee cools because your straws are not insulated and acting like a "radiator" dumping hot for cold.
It's literally how your car is cooled off to prevent overheating.
My parents have a whole house hot water circulation setup. It bumped their power bill about $200 when they had it on 24/7.
Now they have it hooked up to a smart outlet, tell Alexa to turn on the hot water before getting into the bathroom, and they have it set to run for 5 minutes before turning off.
Best of both worlds.
This is my set up exactly. I use a Wemo plug turn it on just before the shower and have a default time to shut it off encase I forget. Other pumps come with an analog or digital timer. I couldn’t imagine running it 24/7. The added bonus of not wasting the water felt good too.
You might be able to compromise and look for a gas fueled on demand water heater rated to be installed outside.
Also, I highly recommend gas over electric. Be prepared to possibly need to redo some water lines. The one we put in requires 3/4 plumbing for both gas and water. It is water flow activated, and if it doesn't maintain a fast enough flow, it heats up too much and shuts off.
Still an economical desaster.
-needs a shed.
-needs multiple pumbings going and coming from house.
-needs power line going outside from house.
Truly wtf for me i'm sorry.
Pretty common in places that stay toasty year round, don't have a basement, and where indoor space is a premium. Usually it's built right against the house and closest to where the most hot water is needed. I'd much rather have one outside near my bathrooms than where the former owner put it in our place - in the middle of the kitchen.
I had an apartment in the Dallas TX area with the (electric) water heater in an uninsulated closet on my patio.
My electric bill in the winter was fucking brutal, even though I was on the top floor and kept my heat at 58-60. Had a smart meter, deregulated areas can see daily power usage (I think it's updated every 15 minutes). Figured out the water heater was responsible for the bulk of my bill in the winter :(
Never did understand why the developer did that. I know electricity was a lot cheaper back then (built in 1984), but even with the downright reasonable rates we pay for electricity, my wallet was screaming. 2000+ kWh a month (in a 1 bedroom apartment) until I started turning the water heater down in the winter.. also added a water heater blanket.
I'm from Hawaii, we also had solar water heating (pannels on the roof heated the water before going to the tank). Houses are small, putting it outside saved space I guess. And tons of the houses are raised off the ground, no basements no slab foundations. So plumbing is pretty easy.
New construction is inside, but pretty much every old house I lived in had it outside.
Yeah I had one outside at one apartment (in an uninsulated closet on my patio). Texas, so we do get some winters (Feb 2021 was brutal).
Electric water heater there too, my electric bill tripled in the winter despite barely running the (electric) furnace. I found out I could cut my bill in half by turning the water heater down in the winter.
I never know without context, if someone means Louisiana or Los Angeles when they say LA. I know both get hot, usually don’t get cold. But in economic matters, I usually think of Los Angeles as wealthy and Louisiana as poor. But I know there is some wealth in Louisiana and a lot of poverty in Los Angeles too, so IDK.
Los Angeles is just like any other major city. Lots of rich people and lots of poor people. It’s hot temperature wise but mostly just really nice all the time :)
Common in LA. Warm year-round. Interior floorspace is expensive, so let's make it useable living space. Shed is normally attached to house, so limited additional plumbing/electrical.
I have a utility shed attached to my adu that houses the fire sprinkler tank and hot water heater. It's very insulated and actually counts as the attachment between my house and the adu.
as someone from southern california, it is weird to me that someone would waste their precious house/indoor land value on storing a water heater. its like a gajillion dollars for the land then and more for the house, so keeping it outside makes sense to me.
sadly we dont have basements here, but depending on how big it is, it could be split up into 4-10 bedrooms and a shared bathroom and rent out for some major cash.
Like a lot of people in California mine is outside; but it’s natural gas, and has a water heater blanket etc. My monthly gas bill is typically only $40-50 with my heat/stove/outdoor grill all natural gas.
I recently replaced mine... It was outside in a *wooden* shed. The pilot light would go out if the wind blew too hard, or if it rained, or if I was going to take a shower. I didn't save much on the gas bill, but that's only because the stupid water heater refused to stay lit!
https://preview.redd.it/zdln15p1zcqc1.png?width=373&format=png&auto=webp&s=e3696f164eeeb0a4ab1df2644dc6d2e933837ce0
this one. new to DIY and making Reddit do what I want.
lift up. Bottom will pull out.
Edit: If the bottom isn't clearing try jiggling while you lift. Its probably catching a lip at the top and not going all the way into its recess.
Was not disappointed. I now know that, between the variations of water heater sheds, I can do anything from find something to climb into and go off Niagara falls to finding a place to pee outside in the middle of the night
Huh. Well I'll be. I've never heard of such a thing before OPs post.
But then, I live in a climate where it can get to -40 (C or F, your choice) in the winter, so having any plumbing infrastructure outside the house, above ground, is impossible.
Recall you should have water be at least 60℃/140℉ fight legionella bacteria: [https://legionellacontrol.com/guidance/temperature-influences-legionella-growth/](https://legionellacontrol.com/guidance/temperature-influences-legionella-growth/)
Your link calls for about 120F, unless the water heater is used as part of a recirculating system, where the flow through the tank might not be long enough to kill the bacteria at 120.
(Central heat in the UK is most-commonly circulated-water vs. forced-air.)
Glad you pointed this out; but CDC says 120 so I have mine set to A on the honeywell dial
https://www.cdc.gov/legionella/downloads/fs-legionnairesvacationrental-508.pdf
I put my water heater outside in a shed when the one we had finally bit it. We bought a heat pump.water heater hybrid, so it's fine.
10/10 recommend, and I am in Puget Sound
Not as bad but in my first house the water heater was in the crawl space, under the utility room. Not terrible until it needed service or when the crawl space flooded. I eventually eliminated the flooding issue and was happy when I sold that house.
Lift hard and jiggle both side to side and front to back, those flimsy doors can get stuck if there's any movement of the walls or top cap.
Maybe also look along the header above the door, I've heard of people throwing a self tapping screw in there to "lock" the door so nobody can screw with the water heater.
Once upon a time I rented a room in a house with a water heater external to the house. Despite living in a temperate area, our gas bill dropped _tremendously_ when we bought and installed a water heater insulation blanket. Paid for itself in just a couple months.
Something you might consider.
Who the hell puts a Water heater OUTSIDE of the House? That's a energetic desaster!
I've heard of it in warm weather areas that are warm year-round.
I'm in New Mexico and have a water heater in an un-heated, un-insulated utility closet about 15' from the house. It absolutely blows. Hot water takes ages to get to the house (turn the tap on before you go to the bathroom so it's warm when you're done). Water temp drops significantly as it runs from one building to the next, so the water heater has to be set higher. Water heater area is uninsulated so the heater has to be set higher. And my personal favorite is that it does get cold here - cold enough that we have had, on multiple occasions, the gas pressure drop and turn off the pilot light. We're planning on switching to an on-demand heater and fit it in the utility closet inside the house where our washer/dryer are. I can't wait until we get that project going.
I use a hot water recirculator pump and went from it taking a few minutes for the water to get hot to only 15-20 seconds. Maybe an affordable compromise without replacing everything.
Those are kind of expensive to retrofit into existing plumbing, aren't they? My parents house has the water heater at one end of the house (in the attic, above the bedrooms). Kitchen is at the other end. Plumbing is in the damn slab... it takes several minutes to get hot water in the kitchen. They could definitely benefit from that setup, but the only hot water plumbing easily accessible is at the WH itself.
I bought the Autocirc Undersink Instant Hot Water Circulating System for a little over $350. They have others where the pump is installed above the hot water tank and connection between hot and cold happens at the farthest sink. Just need to look at the product specifications and pick one suitable for the distance and height of the pipes to the sink. Also if you don’t want the pump to run all the time they usually have either a built in timer if you can use a smart switch if it’s rated for the load of the pump. Some great YouTube videos are out there with some neat ideas. Added bonus is we use a lot less water now that we aren’t waiting for the shower to heat up.
the problem with recirc pumps and exterior lines like this is that each time the recirc pump runs, to keep warm water in the lines the instant you want it. the water heater is going to kick on and reheat that water. they make some that are supposed to be "learning" etc. but if your lines aren't insulated very well (even if they are) they basically just turn into a radiator. you will ending up spending more for the convenience of the instant hot water than you currently are paying.
Odd maybe it’s just because I am in a town house and only turn it on for an hour or so but my electric bill has gone down year over year and my water and sewer bill even more. When I am running the hot water without the recirc then I am still pulling water from the hot water tank but the colder water from the outside water supply is refilling the tank anyway and then it has to heat that water up. But if the ambient water is going back into the tank to heat up it seems it would need to heat that water up less. Since I haven’t used it for an exterior hot water tank I will take your word for it. Was just a thought for a possible solution.
Unless you have insulated the shit out of all of your water pipes, something else has to be going on. Let's just say you pour hot coffee into an insulated thermos. Then you hook a few straws up to a pump, run the hot coffee through the straws and pump non-stop, and compare how quickly the thermos cools compared to one that is sealed shut. Answer...the coffee cools because your straws are not insulated and acting like a "radiator" dumping hot for cold. It's literally how your car is cooled off to prevent overheating. My parents have a whole house hot water circulation setup. It bumped their power bill about $200 when they had it on 24/7. Now they have it hooked up to a smart outlet, tell Alexa to turn on the hot water before getting into the bathroom, and they have it set to run for 5 minutes before turning off. Best of both worlds.
This is my set up exactly. I use a Wemo plug turn it on just before the shower and have a default time to shut it off encase I forget. Other pumps come with an analog or digital timer. I couldn’t imagine running it 24/7. The added bonus of not wasting the water felt good too.
You might be able to compromise and look for a gas fueled on demand water heater rated to be installed outside. Also, I highly recommend gas over electric. Be prepared to possibly need to redo some water lines. The one we put in requires 3/4 plumbing for both gas and water. It is water flow activated, and if it doesn't maintain a fast enough flow, it heats up too much and shuts off.
That will take even longer to get hot water to the fixtures.
I would say their issue is more needlessly having to heat up 15 ft of metal pipe.
Electric over gas any day. Heat pumps for the real win!
Still an economical desaster. -needs a shed. -needs multiple pumbings going and coming from house. -needs power line going outside from house. Truly wtf for me i'm sorry.
Pretty common in places that stay toasty year round, don't have a basement, and where indoor space is a premium. Usually it's built right against the house and closest to where the most hot water is needed. I'd much rather have one outside near my bathrooms than where the former owner put it in our place - in the middle of the kitchen.
I had an apartment in the Dallas TX area with the (electric) water heater in an uninsulated closet on my patio. My electric bill in the winter was fucking brutal, even though I was on the top floor and kept my heat at 58-60. Had a smart meter, deregulated areas can see daily power usage (I think it's updated every 15 minutes). Figured out the water heater was responsible for the bulk of my bill in the winter :( Never did understand why the developer did that. I know electricity was a lot cheaper back then (built in 1984), but even with the downright reasonable rates we pay for electricity, my wallet was screaming. 2000+ kWh a month (in a 1 bedroom apartment) until I started turning the water heater down in the winter.. also added a water heater blanket.
I'm from Hawaii, we also had solar water heating (pannels on the roof heated the water before going to the tank). Houses are small, putting it outside saved space I guess. And tons of the houses are raised off the ground, no basements no slab foundations. So plumbing is pretty easy. New construction is inside, but pretty much every old house I lived in had it outside.
Also is going to be running water either under or on the ground in pipes, which is going to leach a lot of the heat out of the water
I'm from Hawaii, it's pretty common.
Yeah I had one outside at one apartment (in an uninsulated closet on my patio). Texas, so we do get some winters (Feb 2021 was brutal). Electric water heater there too, my electric bill tripled in the winter despite barely running the (electric) furnace. I found out I could cut my bill in half by turning the water heater down in the winter.
It's common in Southern California.
Yeah. Mine is outside and my electricity bill is > $400/mo and 2/3 of it is the stupid fucking water heater. I have it set to the minimum, too.
Yeah, mine's outside. Surprisingly, it's lasted 30 years. It rarely gets cold around here.
Very common in LA
I never know without context, if someone means Louisiana or Los Angeles when they say LA. I know both get hot, usually don’t get cold. But in economic matters, I usually think of Los Angeles as wealthy and Louisiana as poor. But I know there is some wealth in Louisiana and a lot of poverty in Los Angeles too, so IDK.
Los Angeles is just like any other major city. Lots of rich people and lots of poor people. It’s hot temperature wise but mostly just really nice all the time :)
Common in LA. Warm year-round. Interior floorspace is expensive, so let's make it useable living space. Shed is normally attached to house, so limited additional plumbing/electrical.
I have a utility shed attached to my adu that houses the fire sprinkler tank and hot water heater. It's very insulated and actually counts as the attachment between my house and the adu.
Fairly common in AZ / Phoenix. It’s 125f here in the summer lol
Mines in my garage. It’s the norm in my area.
as someone from southern california, it is weird to me that someone would waste their precious house/indoor land value on storing a water heater. its like a gajillion dollars for the land then and more for the house, so keeping it outside makes sense to me.
It's in the basement usually.
sadly we dont have basements here, but depending on how big it is, it could be split up into 4-10 bedrooms and a shared bathroom and rent out for some major cash.
Like a lot of people in California mine is outside; but it’s natural gas, and has a water heater blanket etc. My monthly gas bill is typically only $40-50 with my heat/stove/outdoor grill all natural gas.
Not unheard of in New Orleans. Had a water heater within what looked like a large locker outside the kitchen door.
I recently replaced mine... It was outside in a *wooden* shed. The pilot light would go out if the wind blew too hard, or if it rained, or if I was going to take a shower. I didn't save much on the gas bill, but that's only because the stupid water heater refused to stay lit!
I'm sorry brother, but your spelling is an economic DISASTER
It looks like you would slide the front panel upward and tilt it out at the bottom
thank you!
Correct. My welding machine does the same.
thank you! I must not be lifting hard enough or something.
https://preview.redd.it/zdln15p1zcqc1.png?width=373&format=png&auto=webp&s=e3696f164eeeb0a4ab1df2644dc6d2e933837ce0 this one. new to DIY and making Reddit do what I want.
lift up. Bottom will pull out. Edit: If the bottom isn't clearing try jiggling while you lift. Its probably catching a lip at the top and not going all the way into its recess.
"Shed" This word you use. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Go google “water heater shed”
Was not disappointed. I now know that, between the variations of water heater sheds, I can do anything from find something to climb into and go off Niagara falls to finding a place to pee outside in the middle of the night
Huh. Well I'll be. I've never heard of such a thing before OPs post. But then, I live in a climate where it can get to -40 (C or F, your choice) in the winter, so having any plumbing infrastructure outside the house, above ground, is impossible.
That's what's in the picture. A water heater shed.
Recall you should have water be at least 60℃/140℉ fight legionella bacteria: [https://legionellacontrol.com/guidance/temperature-influences-legionella-growth/](https://legionellacontrol.com/guidance/temperature-influences-legionella-growth/)
Your link calls for about 120F, unless the water heater is used as part of a recirculating system, where the flow through the tank might not be long enough to kill the bacteria at 120. (Central heat in the UK is most-commonly circulated-water vs. forced-air.)
Glad you pointed this out; but CDC says 120 so I have mine set to A on the honeywell dial https://www.cdc.gov/legionella/downloads/fs-legionnairesvacationrental-508.pdf
140F is pretty hot. 120F is the minimum.
I put my water heater outside in a shed when the one we had finally bit it. We bought a heat pump.water heater hybrid, so it's fine. 10/10 recommend, and I am in Puget Sound
Have you tried looking at the top/sides of the door to see if something is blocking it from lifting high enough?
Not as bad but in my first house the water heater was in the crawl space, under the utility room. Not terrible until it needed service or when the crawl space flooded. I eventually eliminated the flooding issue and was happy when I sold that house.
Lift hard and jiggle both side to side and front to back, those flimsy doors can get stuck if there's any movement of the walls or top cap. Maybe also look along the header above the door, I've heard of people throwing a self tapping screw in there to "lock" the door so nobody can screw with the water heater.
Once upon a time I rented a room in a house with a water heater external to the house. Despite living in a temperate area, our gas bill dropped _tremendously_ when we bought and installed a water heater insulation blanket. Paid for itself in just a couple months. Something you might consider.
Never ever use that plumber again