What are the factors that determine the life of a water tank? Obviously the quality of the water and the materials used to construct the tank are important. But beyond that I'm fuzzy. Is it just the number of gallons of water that pass through it? The number of "fresh" gallons of water that pass through it (ie so water in a hydronic system that was recirculating and being drained just periodically would cause less deterioration than water in a domestic supply situation)? Does the temperature of the water play a role? Does the process of electrically heating water somehow contribute to deterioration of the metal? Or is it all just down to how many years a surface is submerged in water?
I'm kind of trying to tease out whether there's a way to prolong the life of the water tank that gets heated through an active solar thermal system. And I'm trying to understand if the way active solar heating systems are designed is because that's really the best way to do it or because it's the cheapest way to do it in the short term but maybe there's a better way if we look at long term costs.
For instance, would it be better to get a tank without any kind of electric heating and install an on-demand hot water heater downstream of the tank instead? Would that storage tank last longer? But also I'm just trying to understand
I'm kind of trying to tease out whether there's a way to prolong the life of the water tank that gets heated through an active solar thermal system. And I'm trying to understand if the way active solar heating systems are designed is because that's really the best way to do it or because it's the cheapest way to do it in the short term but maybe there's a better way if we look at long term costs.
For instance, would it be better to get a tank without any kind of electric heating and install an on-demand hot water heater downstream of the tank instead? Would that storage tank last longer? But also I'm just trying to understand
