electric tankless water heater

franklinsfarms

about to make decisions on which water heater to buy, wanted a Takagi but they only do gas heaters.
Hoping to eventually run the system on solar (or at least partially) which is why electric.
Existing wooden floor on top of which I will run pet hose and then a new subfloor and a finish floor.
2000 sq. ft. divided into 4 or 5 zones, plus one zone for a small bathroom downstairs from this with pet embedded into concrete.
Anyone have a good suggestion for a heater?

Zman

What you want is an electric boiler, not a water heater. There are quite a few on the market. Ideally you would use one with outdoor reset capabilities.

Jamie Hall

Figure your heating load before you buy anything...

As @Zman says, there are quite a few electric boilers on the market. Be sure that your electrical service can handle the load, however. As a WAG ballpark, you're likely to need at least 40 KW, which is over 150 amps on the normal residential 240 volt supply.

If you are planning to eventually go to solar photovoltaic, also keep in mind that in full sun, you will need a minimum (with current technology) of 200 square meters of solar panel to supply that load -- but that the sun doesn't always shine, so you'll need more (a typical WAG is 8 times the area) or 1600 square meters of panel (about a third of an acre), plus storage batteries (that's variable with where you live, of course).

hot_rod

May be worth looking into air to water heat pumps. Heat, cool and provide DHW at a much better efficiency, when compared to electric resistance boilers.

franklinsfarms

Thank you all, lots to look into.
I did think of augmenting the solar part with wind technology.