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H the K

wrote:
On Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:22:33 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

I bought one of those tankless water heaters and still have it in the
box. It's tiny and mounts on the wall so I will gain some space in the
garage. My conventional unit is 12 years old and could die any day.
The problem is the wiring. I have to get a nice, non-union, electrician
to run some fat wires about 15 feet to run it. I don't mess with
anything above 120V.
a contributor here in reek.boats and I were talking about those a few
days ago.

His is operated with gas, though.

I'm investigating the on-demand heaters though. sounds better than
cooking water 24/7

You need some pretty serious unused electrical capacity to have an on
demand heater capable of supplying a regular house. 100a is not
unreasonable.

I wonder about the "savings" for an average family with kids,
dishwashers, washing machines, et cetera, compared to a good quality gas
hot water heater that costs about half of what the "tankless" models
cost. I read through manufacturers' lit a few years ago, and since we
have fairly typical use here, I couldn't see that a tankless unit made
much sense. Maybe the economics have changed...