Now that I have your attention, I will put some heavy qualifications on my title. In the rush to go green, intent may not be anything like implementation in the end. This is a diary that has grown out of my experience of the past couple weeks, and may have much broader implications than just what's going on in my basement.
A few brave souls have followed my odyssey over the past couple of weeks with installing a new water heater in my home. I'm not going to go heavily into the details because much of my anger was directed at the wrong target. Only through a lot of research and discussion, have I figured a few things out.
According to the very experienced technician that came to my house this morning, the problems that I'm having with my water heater are the direct result of "those green folks that are hyperventilating about the earth getting warmer, and them pushing big changes... if someone would have just consulted someone like me...." And he went on at length. Now, initially, I was pretty damned upset with this guy, and told him to leave his politics at the doorstep when he came into my home. After about an hour and cooler heads prevailing, I realized that there may be some truth to what he was saying. He had a broad target, but his scope definitely needed calibrating.
Did you know that there is a megalithic organization that sets standards for everything from the manufacture of widgets to the operations of thing-a-ma-jigs in the United States? The effects of this organizing body are so wide-spread, that I had to put fictitious products in the last sentence. This organization is ANSI (the American National Standards Institute) From their website:
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) coordinates development and use of voluntary consensus standards in the United States and represents the needs and views of U.S. stakeholders in standardization forums around the globe.
The Institute oversees creation, promulgation and use of thousands of international norms and guidelines that directly impact businesses in nearly every sector: from acoustical devices to construction equipment, from dairy and livestock production to energy distribution, and many more. ANSI is actively engaged in accrediting programs that assess conformance to standards - including globally-recognized cross-sector programs such as the ISO 9000 (quality) and ISO 14000 (environmental) management systems.
Here's how they do it:
ANSI facilitates the development of American National Standards (ANS) by accrediting the procedures of standards developing organizations (SDOs). These groups work cooperatively to develop voluntary national consensus standards. Accreditation by ANSI signifies that the procedures used by the standards body in connection with the development of American National Standards meet the Institute's essential requirements for openness, balance, consensus and due process.
What they do has international implications:
ANSI is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). ANSI is also a member of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF).
When I finally figured out that this organization that I had been searching for, I started to do some research. The very first thing I discovered is that I can't do research. Access to all of the heavy-duty documents required membership to the site. So I decided to see how their membership was made up:
Comprised of Government agencies, Organizations, Companies, Academic and International bodies, and individuals, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) represents the interests of more than 125,000 companies and 3.5 million professionals.
Then I looked at the cost to access the members section of the website. I could join as an individual member for a mere $495. gulp. I get it. This is a site that is primarily for professionals. If I really want information, I can purchase the document that I want. I saw prices from $7 to $58 per document. I'm really not THAT interested in water heaters, but I digress.
The technician that was in my home this morning was blaming the bad design of all new water heaters on the environmental movement. I'm sure there is truth to the argument that there was some heavy lobbying by environmentalists toward greater efficiency standards. I highly applaud that! This organization governing water heater regulations is also made up of professional and highly trained HVAC people in the field. My technician could have put his two cents into the argument, way back at the beginning of this century when these standards were being developed. The standards are negotiated between all parties involved in the regulation, service, maintenance, and manufacture of these appliances.
Here are some conclusions and questions that I have developed over the past couple of weeks:
- According to all of the technicians I've had in my home over the past two weeks, there are systemic problems with the design of water heaters since 2003.
- The flame on the pilot light is regulated so that it is so weak, it can easily go out if there is any kind of a draft. On the other hand, The flame will also go out if it is starved for oxygen. Coincidentally the new systems are closed up very tightly around the bottom to protect the stupid people that blow themselves up by storing gasoline next to the appliance, limiting airflow. Technicians cannot change the setting of the pilot light on the new valves. This seems to be a paradox.
- How did all of these engineers fail to come up with a design that actually worked? The environmentalists win so seldom on issues like this. Is a problem where the regulations were so tough that the engineers were not able to design a solution that worked?
- Maybe the engineers in ANSI weren't ever interested in the water heaters working well.
* Maybe the engineers knew that regardless of whatever they came up with, the industry would make money.
* All water heaters follow the same standards and actually manufactured by only a few companies.
* Water heaters have a terminal life expectancy and the tanks will eventually start to leak. People MUST buy new water heaters at some point, and consumers will only be able to purchase what is available.
* If the units need lots of repair, it's not an issue either. Repair people make money on appliances that fail, and the parts to fix them come from the same manufacturers that made them in the first place.
- Putting a "fresh air" vent in the side of the house is a nice idea to increase the oxygen levels around the water heater, but only if you live in Arizona. Remember, the primary design consideration here is efficiency of the unit. Did anyone think about how having January air pouring freely into the basement of a house in Minnesota was going to effect the weatherization of the home in general? What good is an efficient water heater, if you are compensating for bringing air in that is -20 degrees, requiring you to run your gas furnace more often? No matter how many times I am told to put the end of the hose in a bucket near the water heater, will I believe that this mitigates the impact on the indoor environment. I understand that cold air sinks and it displaces the warmer air at the top of the bucket, but jeez...in a blizzard?!
- I discovered today, that people "in-the-know" about these units routinely stockpile the valves off of the old water heaters because the old valves don't limit the strength of the pilot light. These same people routinely modify their own water heaters with old parts and by disabling safety features, like removing lint screen at the bottom, and removing the glass window covering the pilot light, so they don't have to relight their own pilot lights every day.
- We somehow got these great standards for water heater gas efficiency, that I'm sure look very good for the environmental cause. I'd probably know a lot more of exactly how this happened if I purchased the regulations from the website, but they are pricey. I doubt that even if I purchased the documents, I'd find documentation of the debate and thought process behind the ultimate standards decisions. It would be interesting to know who the players were and the type of conversations that were had among them.
- In reality, the only way to make the water heaters actually work is by making "something else" inefficient. So did these standards actually help anything?
- The consumer got left out in the cold. (or in the cold inside if you have that "fresh air" vent)
- How can we possibly do anything about this?
- How many other green regulations and initiatives are developed naively, with good intentions, but ultimately fail because of implementation?
UPDATE: Here is a comment that just makes so much sense to me:
Now you've got it....And a lot of other people don't. The environmental people who deal with forests largely don't - that's a subject that I know something about, though I'm no expert, because I've spent a lot of time researching it.
The MBAs who are now the arbiters of a lot of what should be engineering decisions also don't.
In both cases, ideology and magical thinking are often substituted for a real understanding of the dynamics of the systems involved.
If good engineering practices were followed, your problem wouldn't have happened.
I've thought of writing a diary on good engineering practices, because it influences nearly everything that's proposed here, and a lot of what people suggest as "easy" solutions tend to have the same problems as your water heater. People don't really understand what it takes to solve a problem, especially complex problems with competing requirements.
One of the solutions (as you've done with your water heater) is to understand both the science behind the problem you're trying to solve, and all of the other things (like your vent letting in -20F air) that are affected by what's being proposed.