Interesting water heater concept. :)

skin1235, Sep 10, 11:03pm
insulating other downstream conductors would say perhaps not directly applied voltage?, perhaps microwave?, easy enough to apply sufficient shielding, no conductive issues
interesting concept though, as good or better than a gas califont
the answer would lay in the wattage required to run it - they say will need heavy duty wiring or words to that effect

tintop, Sep 10, 11:12pm
Yes - microwave is a possibility too. Must read up more about it. Looks interesting.

nzjay, Sep 10, 11:14pm
An old concept and has been used for steam boilers in particular, where the electrodes were raised or lowered to give less or more steam generation. Rely on there being some "mineral salts" in the water to give sufficient conductivity and were prone to these and other compounds (lime) causing problems. The cast iron electrodes needed replacing often also.
If these new units are controlled electronically, I wonder how "failsafe" they are.

russ18, Sep 10, 11:17pm
He's obviously importing it and as a declared medium risk article it has to have a supplier declaration of conformity available so good luck finding a sparky willing to connect this without one.

tintop, Sep 10, 11:33pm
Yes - I wondered about that - thats why I asked. Its for the seller to declare, not for the buyer to find.

wembley1, Sep 10, 11:35pm
Which is probably why he's trying to flick it off.

elect70, Sep 11, 4:03am
No conformity compliance dont buy , sparky wont connect as he will get done by EWRB & could lose his ticket . Seller gets off free .

mrfxit, Sep 11, 5:18am
Interesting contradiction.

"Will require heavy duty power to where you install"

"providing up to 40% energy savings"

russ18, Sep 11, 5:32am
Not really, instantaneous water heating takes a lot of energy but only for that short time while hot water is required, compared to storage cylinders they can be more efficient.

jmma, Sep 11, 7:44am
Would it only be 110V ?

johotech, Sep 11, 7:46am
No they work up to 250V

johotech, Sep 11, 8:00am
From their specifications, the maximum current setting is 48A. They say the unit can produce 12kW, but that works out to 48A at 250V. As NZ power is usually around 230-235V, the maximum power is going to be 11.3kW.

Also on their specs, they say it can raise the temperature of the water by 23degC @ 7.6LPM at full power rating (12kW) - so even less at 11.3kW in NZ.

A "low flow" NZ shower head will be around 8LPM, and NZ cold water temperature could easily be 10deg or lower in the winter. So unless you like having a shower with 30deg water, or you reduce the shower flow way below 8LPM, one of these units just isn't going to work.

Also, drawing 48A off a standard NZ 63A connection? Better hope mum doesn't have a roast in the oven and a few pots of veggies on the stove.

ianab, Sep 11, 8:15am
Also, if you could get it wired in, you will be paying peak power rates as you are heating the water as you use it. No controlled off peak power rate. That sort of negates the power saving if you have to use high priced power.

I suspect there is no "secret sauce" in the technology, just a regular element, with a digital controller to regulate the output temp. A regular heating element is basically 100% efficient, all the heat goes into the water. You can't really get more than 100% efficiency.

russ18, Sep 29, 7:52pm
The auction was withdrawn by the administrator.