I will be looking at replacing a 75 gallon water heater soon after about 10 years of service. Just tonight on TOH Rich Trethewey was installing a tankless water heater and mentioned significant energy savings.
Any ideas or data on the real energy savings? I have seen some who say tankless in fact uses more energy.
Thanks,
John
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Replies
Tankless water heaters is a frequent topic here. If you search the archives you'll find much written about them.
I calculated the payback when I installed a tankless water heater in 1985, basing it on my actual gas usage and installation costs and a guess that the I'd be generous and estimate that the gas use was cut by half. The simple payback came to 13 years. Given the unreliability of the brand and model it did not last that long.
Using those same figures the rate of return on the additional cost of a tankless heater over a conventional heater was 1.8%. Since one can get a 4% rate of return by putting the money in the bank instead of in a tankless heater, I would never do it again.
Here's a link to an earlier post where I outlined the costs. http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=62393.27