Tankless waterheater?

[Spider-TW]

Papa_smurf has a point. I like it when my water heater goes cold and runs my daughters out of the shower. It helps my water bill most, which is more expensive than my gas bill.

I wanted a demand water heater too until I saw to the gas flow required. Even if they replaced my regulator, I wonder if the pipes coming to the house that are 40 years old are big enough.

I would like see a few neighborhoods converted to instant water heaters. When a bunch of households wake up in the morning or come home in the evening, it would be interesting to see the difference in gas flow to the area. I've seen some main gas distribution lines that barely keep their pressure as it is.

In new house it should be pretty nice though.

[DevilMan]

The one at my house had a switch at the kitchen sink and one in the bathroom. You could turn it on or off from either of those.... Just put the tank somewhere and when you decide someone is taking too long just hit the button and shut it down.... Keep in mind it's not a gradual cool off though!!!! It goes from toasty hot to icecubes in an instant.

I think what they should do is redesign the tank type to put a flash heater onto the system BEFORE the water enters the tank.... what happens is the cold water enters the hot water and cools it off.... then the heater has to kick on to heat it all back up.

If it would maybe have 2 tanks that the water wouldn't go from the cool side to the hot side until it was hot or if it got heated before entering the tank so that instead of drawing the overall heat down a few notches it'd be at temp and therefore maintain I really think it'd be the cats meow... Yes they are insulated pretty well, and I really think that putting it on a timer kind of like the house digital thermostat would be nice... where it'd let it cool down sometimes instead of run and run to keep 40 gallons of H2O hot....

Anywho... congrats on the decision, I hope you're happy with it....

DM

[PyRo]

I think what they should do is redesign the tank type to put a flash heater onto the system BEFORE the water enters the tank.... what happens is the cold water enters the hot water and cools it off.... then the heater has to kick on to heat it all back up.

If it would maybe have 2 tanks that the water wouldn't go from the cool side to the hot side until it was hot or if it got heated before entering the tank so that instead of drawing the overall heat down a few notches it'd be at temp and therefore maintain I really think it'd be the cats meow... Yes they are insulated pretty well, and I really think that putting it on a timer kind of like the house digital thermostat would be nice... where it'd let it cool down sometimes instead of run and run to keep 40 gallons of H2O hot....

Anywho... congrats on the decision, I hope you're happy with it....

DM

Basically what you're describing it using a tankless to fill a tank, not a bad idea if you have a very high demand for hot water. Having two tanks as you describe you may as well use both a tank and tankless. Think about what happens if you use a timer though. Imagine a pot of boiling water. You have to run the flame for a while to make it boil. Once it's boiling a very small flame will maintain the temperature (using a little gas). Now turn the flame off and let it sit. You now need to use a much larger flame to bring it back up to temperature (using pretty much all the gas you saved not running that small flame). Water heaters have a vacation setting for a reason. If you won't be using it for two days it may be worth shutting down (you won't even save a couple dollars though). Turning it off to go to work though is just silly.

[hvacman250]

As an HVAC tech and gas installer, I say they are definately NOT worth it. The only benefit is the space saved.

I put a 50 gal gas WH in my home when we built 5 yrs ago. Cost was $250. Its 40,000 BTUs In the summer, my gas bill for the WH and dryer is about $18.

A tankless to do my home was $1,200. BTU rating was 175,000

So you arent keeping the water hot all the time in a tank, but you are using 2.5X the gas usage when it is on.

On the mechanical side, most all I have worked on have problems with pressure switches and circuitboards inside. Everything is crammed inside, making it a PITA to work on. PITA = an extra charge for the customer.

Unless you are begging for space, buy a conventional WH.