It's not that easy being green, part 2

Finally, as promised, here is the saga the wall-hung boiler. I know you've been eagerly anticipating this, so thank you for your patience.

As you recall, the developer who transformed an old shoe factory into 34 condos (one of which we own) was very forward-thinking. He went out of his way to use a few energy-efficient and eco-friendly technologies in every unit. One was the power-flush toilet. Another was the Baxi Luna tankless wall-hung boiler, which operates on natural gas. These types of boilers have been popular in Europe for years, but at the time we moved in, they were relatively new to the U.S. According to the manufacturer, the Baxi is "from 86 to 98% efficient" and "can heat a home or office space from 600 to 6,000 square feet."

As with the toilet, the boiler has been, to put it mildly, a challenge. Heating has never been a problem, and we've been nothing but pleased with our gas bills over the last five winters. Hot water is a different story.

Less than a year after we moved in (about a year after it was installed) our Baxi began struggling to keep up with our hot-water needs. When the temperature dropped, we'd get about five minutes' worth of hot water before the boiler would reset and start over. With no tank to keep hot water in reserve for just such an occasion, the water would go from comfortably warm to ice cold within seconds. Showering became an adventure. (As an aside, others in the building have had similar issues. As a result of my "pioneering" adventures with repair, I've been called on more than once to help someone fine-tune their boiler because of "Cold Shower Syndrome." Ditto with the toilet.)

Knowing nothing about boilers - let alone space-age ones - I called in the professionals from a local plumbing company that supplies and services Baxi (and other) tankless boilers. On their first visit, they replaced a rubber bladder on which dust, dirt and other particles had accumulated. The next day, the shower went cold.

Their second visit involved replacing the mother board inside the boiler (cost: $175). This worked. Temporarily. Within a few days, the boiler was back to its old tricks. The pros came back and found that the board had shorted out. They replaced it at no charge. Cold showers resumed the next day.

Fourth visit: replaced a part inside the Temptrol shower control. Bet you can't guess what happened the next day.

Fifth visit: the tech adjusted the temperature control knob, turning it from all the way up to about halfway. Naturally, I was skeptical. He explained that the Baxi was apparently having trouble keeping the cold water coming into it at the highest temperature. With the temperature set halfway, we'd lessen its workload and still have water hot enough to shower. In the spring, when the water coming in warmed up, we could turn the temperature back up.

This "fix" worked, but for the last four-plus years, we've dealt with a different problem: water pressure. While the Baxi worked, someone could shower while the other washed their hands, for example. Now, if hot water is turned on in two places, the water pressure drops to a trickle. And guess what? Even in the dead of summer, if that temperature knob rises a half-inch above halfway, cold water "rains" supreme mid-shower.

Call me crazy, but I expect the things I buy to actually work, especially when they're as pricey as a Baxi. But instead, we've learned to just deal with its shortcomings. Does that seem right to you? (Aside #2: As explained here, this is apparently a known issue with the Baxi.)

It's more or less an accepted fact that using green technologies is more expensive, but that the good that comes from using them is worth it. That may be true in monetary terms (and if the products actually do what they're supposed to do for more than nine months), but in terms of reliability and inconvenience, I'll quote one of my 2-year-old's favorite sayings at the moment: "No way, Jose."