Green Remodel Forum

Tankless is popular in Europe. I lived in London for a couple of years. I had a hard time to get used to the fact that I got cool water if I turned off the faucet after using hot water. And I had to wait a little for the hot water to come again. I like the hot water storage tank better. I just have a smaller tank with a higher BTU burner so that the heating cycles are shorter. It is very energy efficient and I don’t have to experience the hot and cold “hot water sandwich”.

Hello: It's important to consider "life cycle cost" when contemplating any water heater. What are all the costs over the life of the unit? What is the yearly cost? If a unit costs $3000 to install and you expect a 20 year life, that $150 needs to be added to the yearly cost. If the energy savings of a heater is about the same as the yearly maintenance cost, that's a problem. Here is a link to an article Consumer Reports did on tankless: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/appl ... ers-ov.htm

Money might be best spent first making the plumbing system more efficient. Here is a link for "structured plumbing" , which saves energy, water and waiting time: http://www.worldplumbinginfo.com/articl ... ter-savers . Efficient plumbing and efficient fixtures together might save enough to eliminate the need for a high tech heater.

Yours, Larry

With the tax credit we were excited to have a tankless water heater installed in our garage. We feel the hot water coming to the kitchen is fast. However, we feel the hot water takes longer coming to the master bedroom. We thought we could save some water by installing a tankless, but now we let more water go down the drain. We think the reason the kitchen gets hot water quickly because it is located next to the garage, and because the master bedroom is farther away from the unit it takes longer to get there. Tankless water heaters are not “hot water on demand” as they advertised. In fact, sometimes it can take longer! We are disappointed!

Choosing the right tankless water heater, whether gas or electric, requires three factors: incoming water temperature, flow rate of outgoing water, and power rating of the heater. I installed a Stiebel Eltron Tempra 20 Plus, which adjusts the flow rate if another faucet is turned on so the water temperature won't drop all of a sudden. It also has a digital temperature setting which makes it very easy to adjust. I set the temperature dial to 106 and it keeps the water within plus or minus 2 degrees. I've been using this for a year and it works like a charm.

Tempra water heaters are very attractive and can be installed inside the house to cut down on the incoming cold water donut hole. Mine is in my garage because the electrician wanted too much money to run the 240 volt wires into the house. It takes 30 seconds to a minute for the hot water to reach the sink depending on the distance from the water heater in the garage. I had my water pipes insulated, and this retains some warm water in the pipes for about an hour. The water temperature isn't a problem in warm weather, but in the winter I run about a gallon of water until the temperature is comfortable enough to use.

I'm considering buying a small, 2.5 gal. electric tank heater to put under the sink in the hall bath room to provide point of use hot water. These are about $200 and plug into 120 volt outlet. They use as much current as a small space heater.

I prefer using electric water heaters because I have solar panels on my roof. The Tempra 20 Plus cost about $700 plus $300 for the plumbing connections. The two 240 volt connections with 50 watt breakers was the most expensive part of the installation. My house is small so this 19 KW system is powerful enough for my uses, but a family taking two showers at the same time would require the more powerful Tempra 24 or 29.

It was an excellent idea to have your water pipes insulated that retains heat for an hour. It should not take 30 seconds to 1 minute if you only need to collect about one gallon of cold water before the water comfortable enough to use. My guess is the waiting makes you think it’s a long time.

Your thinking of a point of use unit can save energy and avoiding the hassle of collecting the cold water. I have one installed under my kitchen sink. I have instant hot water to make tea or coffee, and instant hot water to clean the greasy pots.

After reading the Consumer Report that Larry recommended. I’m going to buy a conventional storage water heater. The up front costs is so much lower and with 10 years warranty. That sounds good to me.

Our tankless hot water was installed in the garage. Our kitchen is right next to the garage and the bathrooms are above the garage so we get hot water quickly. We don't feel the delay.

Tankless has made some improvement. The new tankless hybrid now come with a small hot water tank so you don't have to wait for the hot water as long as you used to.

I recently bought a townhome and needed to replace the hot water tank. I decided to get a tankless after reading this thread. The tankless is just outside of my kitchen and the master bathroom is right above the kitchen. My tankless works beautifully. No more hot water sitting in the storage tank!

I recently remodeled the studio apartment in the back of my house. I had a tankless installed and work really well. Didn't have to wait for long for the hot water at all. Yep, the tankless works better than the one I have in my house because my house has more square footage. The water pipes are longer.