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NotNow[_3_]

wrote:
On Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:15:45 -0400, H the K
wrote:

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...

The biggest saving is in the summer time when you are paying to heat
the water and then paying for the A/C to take the escaped heat back
out. In the winter, when you are heating the house anyway there is no
wasted heat.
My water heater is outside the HVAC envelope, just for that reason
I have seriously wondered how much more I would save if I just had a
loop of 2" pipe in the attic storing several gallons of hot
water.(about 1.7 gallons per ten foot joint of pipe) That might really
work well in the detached garage for the washing machine and
occasional hand washing. It would certainly be enough to get the first
"wash" cycle warm. Disregard if you live where water freezes in your
attic ;-)

Harry's an idiot. I've figured my savings with a tankless and in a very
few years, it will have paid for itself.