tankless hot water heater

CarrieB.

have you bought one? my DH and I may be in the market soon for a new hot water heater and I like the idea of getting one of the tankless ones to save money on our gas bill, write off on our taxes and of course be more green. oh yea, and endless hot water for showers sounds nice too (not that I usually take long hot showers, of course). 

Jen&Joe06

We have one in our home. It was here when we bought the house.

RNandLovinIt

the home we are buying will have one. 

SuperGreen

DH and I looked into it and decided the technology was wonderful but we couldn't do it in our house.  It's not our forever house, we'll be moving in a few years, and wouldn't recoup the $3-5K cost of installing the system.  When we looked into it a year ago or so, electric system weren't really available but the gas technology is there. Our gas pipes aren't big enough to to support the heater so the house would have to be outfitted with new pipes (that isn't part of the cost estimate above).  We are very much in love with the idea of endless hot water with no waste of keeping it hot all the time and the maintenance of that big tank, but we couldn't justify the cost in our current home.  We'll definetely do it in our forever home.

PurposelyVague

No and we will be sticking with a traditional water heater after an incident a few years ago where we were without power for nearly a week. It was the middle of a very cold winter and having a hot shower in the morning helped me through it.

ksdk

Like SuperGreen, we found it cost prohibitive. The quote was in the $4k area, with the plumbing and installation. I shopped 3 quotes and they went up to $7k. (Rip off.) So my dad feeds the water through the furnace, no hot water heaters or tanks, and we enjoy hot water on demand. 

LittleSweetie

ksdk:

Like SuperGreen, we found it cost prohibitive. The quote was in the $4k area, with the plumbing and installation. I shopped 3 quotes and they went up to $7k. (Rip off.) So my dad feeds the water through the furnace, no hot water heaters or tanks, and we enjoy hot water on demand. 

How does this work in the summer?  Do you have to keep your furnace on year-round?

Alisha_A

PurposelyVague:

No and we will be sticking with a traditional water heater after an incident a few years ago where we were without power for nearly a week. It was the middle of a very cold winter and having a hot shower in the morning helped me through it.

LOL...our entire area will never be the same after that storm! I don't think I know anyone that didn't learn lessons from that. I did have a gas water heater so I got hot baths, but then I was stuck being cold and wet in my 35 degree house!

But what does that have to do with tankless? If it was tankless gas, wouldn't it still work without electricity?

I looked into it when my old water heater went out, but there really didn't seem to be any actual benefit unless you tend to run out of hot water, and I was really concerned about the exhaust. Its actually really toxic and you have to have special venting.

PurposelyVague

do they have tankless gas? i know that our neighbors who have tankless were without hot water that entire time and so i kind of wrote it off.

Alisha_A

Yep! That's what I was looking at, but once researched, it didn't seem like a better choice at all. Really its benefits seemed more in the space saved, and that you had hot water on demand (for those who run out), rather than energy-savings or being 'green'. They create a toxic exhaust that has to be specially vented, and not near your doors/windows or your neighbor's doors and windows. Yikes.

PurposelyVague

oh interesting. we aren't in the market for it anyway, but it's good to know.

FoxinFiji

CarrieB.:

have you bought one? my DH and I may be in the market soon for a new hot water heater and I like the idea of getting one of the tankless ones to save money on our gas bill, write off on our taxes and of course be more green. oh yea, and endless hot water for showers sounds nice too (not that I usually take long hot showers, of course). 

What size is your gas line?  My parents wanted to put one in but their gas line needed to be 3 times the size it is right now!  Not an option.

Be careful if you have hard water it builds up much faster and can cause some major problems if it isn't clean multiple times a year.  Also, make sure you get a good brand some of the newer companies manufacturing them have had lots of malfunctions (they only started the line because it's the new hot thing).  I work for a company that designs sustainable buildings and our plumbing department has been running into these problems.  

We considered it but we don't have a fuel source now that we have a geothermal system.  We do have a desuperheater though so we get free hot water in the summer instead of sending the heat into the ground. 

sillygoosegirl

I've been traveling in India and Thailand the last few months, and a large fraction of the budget hotel rooms we've stayed in had their own individual tankless water heaters. We could hardly believe it: we're paying between $3 and $20 per night for these rooms, so whatever they are using must be a lot cheaper than the $4K+ I hear people quote in the states. Of course tonight we don't have one for the first time in weeks, so I can't look up a brand or part number for you, but I would see if you can find info on the ones they use here in the developing world, they seem really nice, and I'm sure they are affordable. DH and I hope to have them in our house someday.