Carbon Neutral Hot Water Tanks

Last month a door to door hot water tank salesman came to my home telling me all about this new high efficiency hot water tank that is carbon neutral so it is suppose to be better on the environment in addition to being much more efficient. 

So I did what I always do - I took his information and began doing my homework.

The truth may surprise you - it certainly surprised me!

Here is the universal answer I got from everyone I interviewed including:

• hot water tank manufacturers,
• hydronics engineers,
• university professors,
• licensed plumbers
• TSSA certified gas fitters
• and more...

ALL HOT WATER TANKS ARE CARBON NEUTRAL!

Yes you read that correctly. ALL hot water tanks are carbon neutral.

This is a perfect example of a company using "techno baffle gab" right out of Star Trek in order to make their product look different or somehow better. If you are not familiar with baffle gab it means using a made up terminology because it "sounds" impressive but has no real value. It's made up.

Promoting hot water tanks as carbon neutral is the same as promoting lettuce as fat free! 

Of course lettuce is fat free! Everyone knows that. But not everyone knows what carbon neutral means.

So what is carbon neutral?

Carbon neutral is simply this - one carbon of fuel enters the unit producing one carbon of exhaust or waste - ALL machinery is carbon neutral as they cannot produce more carbons than what is put into them.

1 carbon in = 1 carbon out which simply means neutral

1-1=Zero (neutral)

I personally find it highly insulting to con people into believing that a promoted value is nothing more than fancy talk for something that is exactly the same as every other hot water tank on the market today. 

The one true thing that said was that the new tank would be more efficient than my old one assuming it is 2 years or older - but then again all new hot water tanks are more efficient than ones that are 2 years old or older... each year in use the hot water tank builds up sediment which reduces the efficiency of these units. So even their new hot water tank will loose efficiency over time like all hot water tanks. Again they failed to show why their tank was better.

This is simply another great example of creative marketing designed to mislead customer into buying products that are not superior.

Consumers Wake-up - we don't have to tolerate this kind of unscrupulous marketing scam. If someone comes to your door offering to sell you something that "sounds" great - get their information and offer to call them back once you do your homework.

Legitimate businesses will give you time to review their offer so that you can make an informed decision. They want your business but they also want your customer satisfaction which is the foundation of any successful business.

If a company is pushing you to make an immediate decision without giving you time to think about it you can rest assured that the only one getting a deal in this situation is the salesman NOT the customer.

Some days I am simply amazed by what companies will stoop to just to make a sale.

Note: I am not a scientist so my information is based on what research I was able to gather as a fellow consumer through extensive research & interviews with trade industry professionals.  I certainly welcome additional information and or feedback so if you have anything you would like to add to this article or questions please feel free to email me personally.