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retired profile of WrethaOffGridYes campfirepoetry, we own and use 2 of the eccotemp L5 units in our off-grid cabin, one for the kitchen sink and one in the shower area, the reason we have 2 is to have a backup and to have them close to the source of use, you don’t want your water to have to run long distance, that wastes water while waiting for the hot water to reach you.
The one in the kitchen is inside the cabin, we protected the walls and ceiling near it, I’m not worried about fumes, first our cabin is less than tight, and second, the one at the sink isn’t run for long periods of time.
The one in the shower is inside as well, but it is vented to the outside, that one runs less often but for longer periods of time, so it is prudent for us to vent that one.
We love our propane water heaters, they work great, there is a bit of a learning curve, there are 2 dials on them, one controls the amount of fuel coming in, the other controls how much water goes through. We don’t try to adjust the cold and hot water through the tap, we adjust the water coming directly from the unit to be as hot as we want it, that does vary depending on the temperature of the water coming in, it raises the water temp by a certain temp, it isn’t storing perfectly heater water in a tank, so on warmer days, we turn down the unit, on colder days we have to turn it up.
I can’t remember off the top of my head what water pressure it requires, I do know it’s pretty low, we have used both gravity fed (for the shower) and a 12 volt water pump (for the kitchen), had no trouble getting the units to kick on.
My only complaint about them is the shower handle accessory it comes with, they leak where they connect to the unit, and they have a switch in the handle to turn the water on and off, it’s HARD to move the switch, if you have wet soapy hands, you can forget about it, we just plumbed ours into our water system.
You can see a picture and get info about our water heater and a few other things we use living off-grid here:
https://offgriddev.wpengine.com/2010/09/02/7-things-i-use-living-off-grid/
You can see pix of our shower here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.227960130587420.80205.100001203045115&type=1&l=b7e48566f3
if that doesn’t work, try this:
Wretha