Opinions needed on tankless/electric(220) water heaters

Mad Dog

2nd floor. The gas water heater is only a 40 gallon and won't recover fast enough for their other needs. He doesn't want to upgrade to a larger one because it is only a year old. What do u dudes think? Brands? Performance? Thanks in advance. Mad Dog

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Mad Dog

Customer wants a dedicated unit just for his jacuzzi tub on the

2nd floor. The gas water heater is only a 40 gallon and won't recover fast enough for their other needs. He doesn't want to upgrade to a larger one because it is only a year old. What do u dudes think? Brands? Performance? Thanks in advance. Mad Dog

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Dale

Don't

The tankless electrics big enough to fill a hot tub will add cost to the electric bill way more than another gas heater, tank or instantaneous if they use the tub much. And, unless the inlet is really soft they lime up. If the elect cost doesn't bother them The cheapest fix I have seen is just a regular 50 gal elect tank in series used as a dump tank, really only needs 120 volts since the tub is usually only used a few times a week.

Mad Dog

Simplicity is a beautiful thing

thats the most practical idea. I think the HO will be disappointed because I think he wants the "high-tech" tankless, but I do concur. Ok, so, I will just pipe that with the hot going in one side of the tank and out the other. IF?????? the tank dumped, then the regular hot water from the reguklar heater is right behind it, right? I like the idea alot. I'll convince him. Thanks a million, Dale. Mad Dog

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Bob_41

tankless electric

Take a look at this site ..http://www.seisco.com/ lots of "data" on cost comparisons. I especilly like the $$$ associated with "space" savings. Here in the DC area electric is reasonable 5-6 cents Kwhr (although they just announced a price hike of like $10/month) so if you got the panel space and capacity for one of these units its a viable alterntive.

Bob

Uni R

Pretty much bogus...

Bob, those comparisons jump around between gas and electric tanks. They list the savings as 25% as compared to electric tanks that are listed as 88% efficient. I can see the point in gas fired tankless in many situations but tankless electric to me doesn't have the same benefits. Modern electric tanks are rated at around 92-94% efficiency (not 88%). During the heating season none of those BTUs escape out a flue or anything, so effectively they are even higher for at least half the year in northern regions. So that 25% savings starts to look a bit weak. Furthermore, power companies fully realize that a KW at 9:00pm is worth far less than a KW @ 9:00am so we should expect smarter meters to be coming down the line at some point that will charge us based on peak/non-peak hours. Even if we aren't, it is far easier on the local portion of the grid having 5.5KW coming on for longer periods with many of those hours offpeak than having a bunch of tankless all coming on doing quick draws of 28KW or more first thing in the morning. Anyway, for whatever level of savings you will need a 125 amp circuit or many 30 amp breakers and have no hot water if there is a power failure and also have to be sensitive to low flow issues for things like rinsing while shaving.


If you consider $2500 for the tankless including wiring upgrades and $600 for an electric tank model (replaced at year 10 with an $800 tank) and energy costs of $400 for the tank and $320 for the tankless with them rising 5% annually, using 5% as your cost of capital and taking a 20 year horizon, the tankless will save you $115 in present dollars. One $100 dinner plus tip. For that price, I'd rather skip the probable 2 or 3 cold showers over the next 20 years.


All these numbers are fictional to protect the innocent but the calculations are real.