Offset Mounting Bracket for Stable Dual Water Heater Retrofit
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional hot water storage systems face inefficiencies due to heat loss and space constraints when retrofitting tankless water heaters, as they often require additional energy to maintain temperature and have size limitations for mounting multiple units.
Innovation Solution
An offset mounting bracket system that allows for the secure attachment of multiple tankless water heaters to a standard water storage tank, utilizing a primary member, stabilization member, and connecting member to distribute the weight and minimize space requirements, enabling efficient water heating with redundant engines in a compact footprint.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If a tankless water heater is mounted directly to a water storage tank in constrained spaces, then space utilization is improved, but the weight distribution becomes unbalanced causing instability
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting bracket extends outward from the water storage tank in a radial direction, utilizing the third dimension (depth/space extending from the tank surface) to position the heat engine away from the tank centerline. This dimensional extension allows balanced weight distribution while maintaining compact footprint on the tank surface.
Solution Approach 2:
The mounting bracket serves as an intermediary component between the water storage tank and the tankless water heater. It provides a leveraged mounting structure that distributes the heat engine's weight across a larger area and extends the mounting point outward, achieving both space efficiency and stability through mechanical leverage.
2Reliability
If multiple tankless water heaters are mounted to a water storage tank, then heating reliability is improved through redundancy, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting bracket is designed as a universal mounting structure that can accommodate one or multiple heat engines of the same type. The standardized bracket design with multiple mounting positions and attachment points allows flexible configuration for single or dual heat engine installations without requiring different mounting hardware.
3Area of stationary object
If a compact mounting structure is used to reduce footprint, then space utilization is improved, but the structural strength may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The bracket utilizes the radial dimension extending from the tank surface to distribute loads over a larger volume of space. By extending outward rather than spreading laterally on the tank surface, the structure achieves strong mechanical leverage while maintaining a compact footprint on the tank itself.
Solution Approach 2:
The mounting bracket is constructed from heavy-gauge steel material that provides high strength-to-weight ratio. The thick-gauge metal construction ensures sufficient structural strength to support one or two heat engines while maintaining a compact, space-efficient design.
Data Source
AI summary
An offset mounting bracket that comprises a primary member and a stabilization member can be used to mount multiple heat engines to a water storage tank. An offset mounting bracket can include a primary member, having a top surface, a bottom surface, an inner surface, and an outer surface. The offset mounting bracket can also have a stabilization member, having a top surface and a bottom surface, a supporting surface that is opposed and connected to the primary member outer surface. The offset mounting bracket can also have a connecting member. The connecting member can be configured to fasten to the top of a water storage tank. There, the offset mounting bracket, can provide a surface to mount a heat engine that otherwise would not fit onto the water storage tank structure.