So My Water Heater is Pretty Old...

[LaydeeBug]

and I am thinking of going tankless, but I am not sure. Maybe just update my old water heater and keep it simple? Will I save *that* much on my electric bill? My bill averages about $200 a month, higher a bit in the winter.

Does anyone have these? I would *love* to take a "long as I want" hot shower, but want to be as energy efficient as possible.

Anyone with any recs?

[jeff47]

1. I've had a gas tankless hot water heater

It worked about as well as the "tank" version. I wasn't even aware that they'd come out with whole-house electric ones.

The big thing to look out for: How many things can you run at once? A lot of the smaller units can't handle more than one or two faucets. And keep in mind when they brag about number of shower heads, they get to use the lowest-flow showerheads they can find. A dishwasher or washing machine use a much higher flow, and you'll have problems if it can't keep up with that.

Also, see how adjustable it is. I know of some electric tankless units that are meant to only heat up one shower or sink (think adding on a bathroom and not wanting to run a hot water line, or new bath veeeeery far from water heater). The drawback to some of those units is they only had two temperature settings, "warm" and "hot". This can make it hard to get a temperature you find comfortable.

As for savings, the gas unit was going to take around 7 years to pay for itself. Electric is going to be much harder to calculate, because electric rates are far more variable than natural gas rates.

To try and guess how long it'll take to "pay for itself", think about all the time the hot water is not used. Keeping that tank hot is all you are really saving. So if it's just you or you + 1 and you tend to use a lot of hot water at one or two times a day, then you can get some decent savings. If there's a lot more people in the house, or hot water demand all day long then it will be much harder to save money via a tankless system.

If you'd like a cheaper solution, put insulation on the outside of the water heater and any hot water pipes you can get to. There's kits available at your local hardware store that make it pretty easy.

[LaydeeBug]

2. My heater now has insulation around it...

I have enough hot water now, I was just wondering if a tankless one would be better for the shower (or a whole house one, or whatever)

[edgineered]

3. Replacing an old electric water heater

with the same thing may save you about $40 month depending on how much sediment has amassed in the bottom of the tank. Homes on well water tend to get a lot of deposits in the tank which actually cover up the heating element. Think of it like putting a towel on top of something you are ironing - not as much heat gets there. As a result the water heater stays on for a long time before making the water hot enough to turn off.

eta: previously, wrapping water heaters was thought to be effective. It turned out that no savings were had, but in addition the wrapping created more problems - particularly small leaks would go undetected resulting in corrosion and other problems. Part of our renovation/refurbishment proceedures at a 500 unit was to remove the insulation on a water heater if the elements and thermostats were otherwise working correctly. I think you will be surprised at how much less your next power bill will be.

[LaydeeBug]

4. wow, really?

My attic doesn't have heat, so it stood to reason that wrapping it in insulation would help keep the heat inside.

A new electric water heater seems to be pretty (relatively) inexpensive, so I might look at that.