Your Place: No need to keep bulky, old hot-water heater

26.08.10

Q: We are remodeling the scullery in our 1893 house. We would like to have the space our hot-water radiator is taking up. It is 50 inches fancy by 25 inches high by 8 inches deep. What would be our alternatives? Would under-the-floor impassion be enormously expensive? We do have some wall space planned that could accommodate the flat go bankrupt-hung-style radiator, but do you know anything about them? The kitchen is about 12 feet by 14 feet with 10 feet of ceiling apogee.</p><p> Have you heard any more on the tankless water heater? I remember reading your column, it was at least a year ago or more. I've been thoughtful about replacing our 25-year-old, oil-burning furnace, which also supplies our hot water, with an efficient gas furnace and tankless heater, but my plumber insists that water doesn't get hot and they don't trade well. I wondered if you had heard from any readers about it.</p><p> A: First question first. There is no need to live with the turn-iron monster inhabiting your kitchen. It predates modern technology by more than 100 years. Most people persist with them because we - they - think they fit an old house.</p><p> Well, these are modern times, and there are alternatives. The Internet is full of very chic ones that would fill the bill, although the pipes might need some retrofitting - nothing is ever easy and every situation is slightly assorted.</p><p> My plumber always said that radiator replacement is something best left to professionals, so talk with yours about what it might take to change-over it.</p><p> You might consider radiant-floor heating, but it would be expensive, unless you were engaging the kitchen down to the studs and joists, which would make it slightly less expensive. I think replacing the radiator would be charitable enough.</p><p> Tankless or on-demand hot water? The people who have it swear by it, although a few swear at it, and I hear regularly from both. A neighbor has it, making it a part of a critical addition and renovation, and he still has no complaints after two years.</p><p> Plumbers generally don't like on-require. Whenever a consumer contacts me about tankless, four out of five times he or she starts "my plumber doesn't evaluate on-demand hot water works ..."</p><p> Frankly, pro and con are evenly split. The fixed decision, I guess, is up to you and the plumber.</p><p> Bedbug update. The National Nudzh Management Association sent me the results of a survey it conducted on American attitudes toward bedbugs.</p><p> They are against them. In act, 77 percent are concerned and embarrassed by them.</p><p> I won't share the complete view results with you. I will, however, share this:</p><p> "Bedbugs are so reviled that people seem delighted to do anything necessary to eradicate the pests," the association said.</p><p> More than half of curse control companies responding to the survey said 50 percent or more of their customers tried to handling of their problem themselves before calling a professional.</p><p> These firms reported seeing many inoperative and potentially dangerous measures used by do-it-yourselfers, including ammonia, blench, fire, smoke, kerosene, wasp spray, and bug bombs, as well as professional-use pesticides bought on the Internet.</p><p> As bedbug victims become more yearning for, serious injury may result from such applications, especially among those who choose not to hire a professional, the conjunction said, adding that "these types of behaviors suggest an increasing for for public education on the subject."</p><p> Q: We live in a large West Mount Airy dwelling that is 100 years old with a foundation of stone and mortar.</p><p> Despite replacing the gutters, and replacing the cracked terra cotta corn-cob that is part of the storm drain system, we are still getting water in the basement in heavy rains.</p><p> What order of contractor can give us an honest diagnosis of the problem and the need for regrading, instead of frustrating to sell us a dry basement package?</p><p> A: Readers who have successfully licked this everyday problem recommend landscaping contractors, since the problem has to be solved outside, not private.</p><p> (Questions? E-mail Alan J. Heavens at aheavens@phillynews.com or annul him at The Inquirer, Box 8263, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101. Volume prohibits individual replies.)

Source: Kansas City Star