DIYbanter - View Single Post - Venting gas water heaters vs. gas stoves.

Mike Hartigan

In article .com,
says...
Why do gas water heaters require external venting while gas stoves do
not? Is there something fundamentally different in the combustions
byproducts (CO vs. CO2) that need to be vented for the water heater
and not the stove?

If the only reason is the volume (BTU rating) of byproducts, it
doesn't make sense. For example, a moderate water heater can have a
rating of 75,000 BTU, while a high end stove will have a total BTU
rating over 100,000.

Our stove has four 15,000 BTU burners. This is on the high side for
residential cooktops. When I have all four burners running on max
(60,000 BTU) for any length of time (a minute or two is all it
takes), the kitchen gets hot enough that I have no choice but to open
virtually all of the windows on the first floor, particularly with a
houseful of guests, as likely would be the case with a big
Thanksgiving dinner. I can't imagine how uncomfortable 100,000 BTU
would be in that situation. The open windows are plenty of
ventilation.

Worse case, think about cooking a Thanksgiving meal, oven is on for
six hours and all the burners are going, all this is vented inside the
house. While downstairs the water heater just has a pilot light
going. Why is one required to have external venting while the other
one doesn't?