Posted: 10/25/2005 4:49:49 PM EDT
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In 2006 there is going to be a $500 tax credit for energy effiecent appliances and home upgrades. I have been looking into tankless water heaters, they heat water on demand to a useable temperature. They do not require you to mix the hot and cold at the tap, the water they produce is 98-104F degrees. They are close to 99% effiecent and are said to really help with your energy bills. Anyone have any experience with these? Any input? |
Homo Depot Thing is I saw SOMETHING on one of the DIY type channels about FAUCETS that did pretty much the same thing. And it SOUNDED like THIS would be the way to go... just haven't gotten TO it yet is all. |
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Here in Turdville, Tennessee the incoming water is too cold in the winter for the tankless system to work properly. I pulled mine out after two days and sent it back. Went back to the tank. In south Louisiana it would work great. Up here it will just piss you off with the pencil thin stream of warm water. YMMV |
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Will they let you spend money in other ways to become more efficient? Tank type water heaters are much more efficient and better insulated than they were a few years ago. I have heard bad things (we discussed it in the office last week) about tankless. You need a very high BTU unit to keep up with usage, particularly when you have guests at the ranch. I thought it would be a good idea to go tankless, but my gas bill for the H20 is so insignificant, I wouldn't even think about going through the hassle. I did install a flow back system to keep water at the furthest faucet at 80 degrees (really only necessary in AZ in the winter). You can save much more energy by upgrading windows, but $500 will be just a fart in the wind for windows........... (I need windows). |
Yes, if you have several people in the household or routinely wash dishes in a dishwasher and run hot or warm water in your washing machine the "savings" will evaporate. They are not meant for high demand environments, despite what they say. My dad installed 4 of them as a primary means for hot water in a DC townhouse that was formerly heated with a gas water heater. Their gas bill went from $60 to almost nothing and the electricity bill quadrupled from $90 to $360. A net increase of $210/month. They are going back to a gas water heater. |
| I've seen good and bad on them. They use a LOT of gas when running, think another furnace or 2 running. 100,000 up to 200,000 BTU in size from the one's I have seen. You will need to size the lines and meter [if nat gas] accordingly. Be aware that parts are not kept on hand usually, and will need to be ordered. Some use electricity [and nat gas] be aware that if you lose power they will not work and you will not have hot water in storage. You might also have to move up in gas meter size depending on load and that is usually a charge [$500 at the utility I work at] + the cost of repiping. Just check all costs and also the water quality and calcium and lime content of it. In some areas it is just not worth the additional costs as wtr htrs do not last long. Check with some contractors in the area and have your water tested. |
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I need to replace my water heater, so I recently researched this. I talked to two different large contractors who install these locally (Colorado front range). Here is what I was told: Tankless heaters are expensive, and repair parts are hard to get as the two big brands are not made in USA (Italy and Japan). Life span is no better than a tank type and may be shorter. They have limited capacity in that they can only raise the temp of just so much water, just so many degrees. For more water and/or higher temps people resort to multiple units in parrallel or series, again this gets expensive. I was told that they do have their uses: Mountain cabin retreats, you don't want to have a tank of water sitting at temp for weeks not being used, but when you get to your cabin you don't want to wait for a tank to come up to temp, so a tankless makes sense and are being used with more frequency in these applications. If I were you, I'd talk to some local contractors. To me the big deal killer was the units limited ability to raise the temp of water. Water is flowing at a fairly constant speed through the unit, so it only has time to come up so many degrees. I'm sorry I don't remember what the number is, but ask your contractor it's pretty much a constant number. If the water is coming in colder it will come out colder, if its warmer coming in it will be warmer coming out. Around here there is a big swing in city water temp from summer to winter. Good luck and check with good a contractor. Vic out. (edited because I can't proof read) 
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I haven't had any experience with these specifically, but there are water heater models that fit right under a sink, and only keep maybe a gallon or less of water ready to use. One place I worked had them and it worked great summer and winter. Later on I read an article on them and which said it really was a very energy efficient system. |
PANGEA, what part of TN are you in? I am in Knoxville, I have not measured my inlet water temp at it's coldest. And what model of tankless heater did you use? Was it gas or electric? |
Lincoln County, 30 miles north of Huntsville Al. My incoming water was about 40-45 last winter. I had the biggest Niagra available for home use at the time. It took a dedicated 60 amp breaker and some bigass wire. Electric. The water that came out at my kitchen sink was about 90 degrees and the flow was about half as big as a pencil. This was about 20 feet from the source. |