Should I get a tankless water heater?
 

We have 87 people in our house and I'm tired of running out of hot water. Should I go tankless?

87 people?!

My dad installed one himself (he's pretty handy) in our home in VT.
It turns on as soon as you turn on the hot water. It seems to work as well as the tank he used to have and he seems to have saved a lot of money in gas costs. He put in a BOSCH. I think in Europe and Asia they are prevalent.

There were a couple threads asking the same question. I actually bought one and decided against installing. I subsequently sold it. Good idea but not practical for everyones lifestyle.

More detail here: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=280932&highlight=tankle ss+water+heater

I lived in London for a year and had "tankless" hot water. I still miss it. Thewre are two teenagers in my house now. Good luck if they get to the shower first.

I'm considering a tankless heater myself.

Two cents worth:
Tankless water heaters are da bomb. No hesitation whatsoever in recommending.

And there're only 4 in our house. I imagine it'd be a must w/ larger families.

Go for it!
Nos SmileWavy

Great, no consensus and the link provided by RickM raises many questions.

Moses, why don't you install one and let me know how it turns out? Preferably in the next few days or so. Thanks in advance.

As of 3 years ago, my plumber/heating contractor rated the tankless water heater as "not ready for prime-time yet" but said they would be ready "in a year or two", so I would check with the local plumbers and find out what their experience has been.

I'm installing two Noritz units in the house I'm in the beginning processes of building. Here in CA (or at least in this County), you have to have a Title 24 energy report done when going through the permit process. The engineer said I could gain some "energy credits" with tankless water heaters to trade off against some other things.
Since the house is long shaped with the kitchen & washroom on one end and bedrooms & most baths on the other end, I'm going with two 6.9 gpm units. I'm also thinking of installing a small, roof mounted solar heater with an insulated tank as a preheating unit. I know I could install a cheaper system, but I think this will be best for the long run.
They do take a lot of gas during operation, but only while running. A tank heater has a huge burner that operates intermittently throughout the day. The electric units take so much power (about 150+ Amps), they are not a good idea for most applications.
The Noritz units take a flow of .75 gal./min. before the unit fires up. That's fairly standard for most, although I think some Bosh operate at .5 gal./min. Some have complained the water flows warm & cold when you draw water at or near the minimum flow rate, because the unit turn on & off. Most units have a 10 year warrantee period, but check the content of the warrantee. Also, in the past, some brands weren't serviceable in the field because the components weren't changeable in the field. Now most are field serviceable. Also you must have soft water (naturally or treated) or the heat exchanger fails early. A stainless steel vent pipe is necessary, depending on the design of the vent system, or it will rust out.
Guess I've taken up enought room here, but there are a lot of things to consider.

Are you going electric, propane or natural gas? I looked into a propane Rinnai. A very nice unit but got many different answers from plumbers I talked to. My electric rates just went up 11.25 % on Jan.1. Propane is the next most expensive form of energy. How do you heat your home?

I have installed one in my last job and it works great. In Holland my sister-in-law's house (4000sf) has a big unit that also heats the house via radiators and works really well. When we visit, 4 adults+6 kids and you don't ever run out of hot water!

When we lived off base in Japan we had one and it worked great, but when the last thread came out I did some light searching. The models that I found didn't seem to have a whole house capacity.

BTW, 87 people isn't a house it's a hotel. Sheesh. I'd be insane after a week of that even if I had enough rooms.

87 might be a slight exaggeration. I have LP and am looking at a Takagi unit. What to do, What to do.

what kind of $ are you looking at? i am interested in this too, as i have oil heat, and it kicks the furnace up to get hot water

Check out Seisco Systems at www.seisco.com. A friend worked there when they were launching their electric tankless water heater line. Sadly, he passed away last year.

He was very enthusiastic about the product. Give it a look if you are considering electric for the whole house.

Highly recommend it without hesitation. Had natural gas one for 2 years now and would not go back.

I too am considering. Those that had/have did you have 1 use, 2 use varieties? My meager research to date suggests that you can get units that allow for one use at time, two use etc. Two use = shower + dishwasher simultaneously etc.

Ian

Ian,

Here's where I got mine, good info at this site:

[http://www.tanklesswater.com/ed_factors-to-consider.asp


I went with the Bosch 240 (now 250) which runs two devices at one time, but you'll still have a temp drop on output if they're both running. Look at the comparison chart, it will tell you how many gallons per minute through the unit at a specific temperature rise, that's the benchmark.

Mine's set to a specific output temp, 127 F I believe. New ones you can adjust with an electric thermostat. I could get one for mine as an attachment but never felt the need to adjust it.

Thanks for the link. Some research to do . . .

I have a mini-electric Cascade 40 or something due to the locale in the house (crawlspace) & it's useless although we lived with it for years. I have a good place to locate a gas tankless - outside wall, beside the cold water main in, beside the gas in & electric panel etc.

Ian

Our plumber installed a Rinnai (natural) gas unit at my mother's house 2.5 years ago, had one installed in our house 1.5 years ago. No problems.

An issue at my mother's is the distance the hot water has to travel from the unit, causing a wait in the kitchen and one bathroom that is the furthest from the unit. The bathroom she uses the most is closest to the unit, so it is not a major problem. It is most noticeable in the winter time. The wait can be over a minute to the furthest faucet, which can drive the cost up I guess.

The layout of our house is different, the unit is more central to all fixtures and the wait is minimal, again longest during the colder months. I read recently where you can put a recirculating pump inline that would solve this. Of course costs would then go up and I'm not sure it would be worth it.

I know of a couple of friends with Takagi units and have had some problems with them.

We take long hot showers and have the dishwasher running, sometimes the clothes washer with a load on hot and have not had any drop in temperature that we could notice.

Here is a pretty good forum that I look at some times. There's even a few topics about tankless on the first page.

http://www.plbg.com/forum/list.php?1