Tankless water heater apparatus, system, and methods
AssigneeRheem Manufacturing Company
InventorsGovinda Mahajan, Edward Turner, Frank Haslbauer, Seth Joshua Prince
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure is directed to a tankless water heater and systems and methods of using the same. The tankless water heater embodiments of the present disclosure can be configured to have a plurality of independently operable heat exchangers that can be used individually or collectively, in any combination, to heat water based on the level of demand for hot water. Embodiments can be configured for randomly selecting which heat exchangers are used to heat the incoming water. Embodiments of the present disclosure can also be configured to flow water through heat exchangers that are not being used to heat water and direct such water to a recirculation loop.
Claims19
A heat exchanger for a tankless water heater comprising:
- an inlet manifold comprising an inlet port and an inlet recirculation port;
- an outlet manifold comprising an outlet port;
- a plurality of conduits, each of the plurality of conduits comprising a first valve and defining a flow path between the inlet manifold and the outlet manifold, wherein each conduit of the plurality of conduits is associated with an inlet conduit port of the inlet manifold and an outlet conduit port of the outlet manifold;
- a recirculation manifold in fluid communication with the inlet recirculation port;
- and
- a controller configured to actuate each of the first valves determined by a level of demand for heated water such that an increasing number of valves of the first valves are actuated to allow fluid flow as the level of demand for heated water increases.
A heat exchanger for a tankless water heater comprising
- an inlet manifold comprising an inlet port and an inlet recirculation port;
- an outlet manifold comprising an outlet port;
- a recirculation manifold that is in fluid communication with the inlet recirculation port;
- a plurality of conduits, each conduit of the plurality of conduits defining a flow path between the inlet manifold and the outlet manifold, wherein each conduit of the plurality of conduits is associated with an inlet conduit port of the inlet manifold and an outlet conduit port of the outlet manifold, and
- wherein the recirculation manifold comprises a recirculation conduit port for all of the plurality of conduits and is configured such that each recirculation conduit port can be in fluid communication and associated with only one of the plurality of conduits;
- and
- a first plurality of valves, each valve of the first plurality of valves being in fluid communication with the recirculation manifold and one of the plurality of conduits and wherein each valve of the first plurality of valves is configured to direct fluid to either the outlet manifold or the recirculation manifold.
A method of heating water in a heat exchanger comprising:
- allowing cold water to flow from a cold water supply into a input manifold;
- actuating a first valve so that water flows through an input manifold through one or more conduits and into an outlet manifold;
- and
- actuating a second valve so that water flows through the input manifold through one or more conduits, through a recirculation manifold, and into the input manifold to mix with the cold water,
- wherein the water flowing into the outlet manifold is heated water and the water flowing through the recirculation manifold is at a temperature lower than that of the heated water.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.