Does anyone here have experience with tank less, vent-less water heaters?

[reprobate]

I'm now having a standby generator installed and since it needed LP gas to run, a pair of LP tanks to feed it. Since the gas will be there, we decided to have a Rinnai 5 gpm tank-less water heater installed outside near the tanks and generator.

The gas people claimed big savings with this kind of WH, but I'd like to hear from anyone who has gone from electric water heater to on demand unit. Have you seen a significant drop in your electric bill?

Appreciate any input.

[Monkeyman]

1. Na staying with Gas

[eleny]

2. I think some folks in this forum have experience

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=287

[GreenTea]

3. The tank-less will indeed save you money....

all things being equal...I mean how could it not....there's NOT a pilot light going 24/7 and using gas to heat and reheat your waterheater, whether you use it or not 24/7 - Plus, to have instant hot water, and as much hot water as one likes, is a nice luxury in itself over old water heaters...(and a tank-less uses a lot less area (space)...I think the initial cost will off set it as time goes on and a tank-less is far more environmentally sound.

However, I'm not sure what your doing and why all the extra tanks and stuff, sounds excessive, i.e. costly?

I'm going to be installing a tank-less using natural gas in about a month.

[reprobate]

8. Thanks, GreenTea. Expensive? Yes, but the water heater is an afterthought

Living in central florida we spent nearly two weeks in hotels last year because of power outages following the storms that came thru. After that experience I decided that WILL NOT happen again so we ordered a standby 16 KW generator which should power our home including the A/C. Of course, we'll have to forget about using the oven or stove top with the generator, but in that case the microwave should handle the cooking for a few days when needed.

Since we don't have natural gas available we have to use LP gas to drive the generator, putting in two 120 gallon tanks which should power the generator for a bit more than three days, depending on current draw. Having the gas supply there, and thinking that substituting a gas tankless water heater for the big electric unit would save on electric bills during normal operation on the power grid and also lessen the draw on the generator during power outages. I'm also hoping at the same time that using the tankless year round will save enough on power bills to amortize the tankless cost over about two years. Yes they are more expensive than the big electric tank types. I paid about eight hundred foe a unit that is claimed to run tow showers and kitchen sink at the same time. If it will save $50 a month on electric costs, that will pay for itself in less than two years. Everything after that is gravy.

So you see the tankless really was an afterthought.

Thats my story, and I'm sticking to it.

[hunter]

10. 16 KW???

If I turned on everything in my house, including the vacuum cleaner, it would be at most 4-5 KW.

How do you do that? Is it all air conditioning?

I have, gas stove, oven, water heater, clothes dryer, etc., so maybe that explains it.

[reprobate]

11. Most of central florida is all electric, with just a few gas lines.

Our last electric bill was a heart stopper. Thanks to Mad George and his buds at Progress Energy the bill just keeps climbing, with the energy surcharge getting bigger every month.

My electrical contractor says the two biggest draws of current are the A/C and water heater. Located where we are the A/C is not a luxury, but a necessity. The heat and humidity would literally be a killer without it. I think he said the A/C is a 6KW draw. He also said that the W/H is responsible for up to 40% of the bill. It's always on and always costing money.

I do envy those like you who have natural gas lines available. If it had been available 22 yrs ago when we build this house, we would have gone gas, too. But it wasn't and still isn't. The bitch of it is that there are gas lines in the subdivisions on each side of us, but they won't run a line to our little neighborhood unless we pay for it, and that's real costly. So we stay with Progress Energy.

At least we'll save SOME cash with the LP tankless w/h, eliminating "up to 40% of current draw".

[Mojorabbit]

4. We have a propane tankless one

and noticed a big drop in our bill. The only thing I don't like about it is the water takes longer to get warm on the opposite end of the house than the front near where the heater is. Other than that we love it.

[hunter]

5. We have an AquaStar. It works great.

It doesn't matter how many people are in the house, or how much laundry we are doing, everyone gets a warm shower.

But there are a few minor problems... Some of our hot water taps are far away from the water heater. Before we got the tankless water heater we had a recirculationg pump -- this doesn't work with the tankless water heater so now it takes a long time to get hot water at these taps. Also, if you are attemping to get "lukewarm" water out of a low flow bathroom faucet, the heater won't kick in. Not using the recirculating pump probably saves a lot of energy, but at the expense of wasting water while you wait for it to get warm.

Unfortunately our gas bill seems to have gone up a little, and that's because our teenagers know they won't catch hell from me because my shower is cold. The hot water simply doesn't run out.

[Javaman]

6. I just got my tankless gas heater about a month ago...

I haven't noticed a single difference between it and a tank one.

Works great. I have run both showers at once and found no difference.

And yes, it will give you hot water for as long as you can afford to. lol :)

Our old gas tank job took up a closet of it's own in the garage. The tankless one, takes only about 1/6th space and allows me to use the rest of the closet now for brooms and such. :)

Very easy to change water temp as well. It was set at 120 degrees and I dropped it down to 110. I haven't noticed a difference. Less gas to burn. ;)

[InvisibleTouch]

7. Tankless is pretty standard in Europe...

...and that's what I was used to as a kid. My grandmother had one mounted on the wall over her bathtub, and you had to turn on the hot water faucet far enough for the red light to click on - then you got hot water, and I do mean hot.

The giant, constantly-heated tanks we have in the U.S. always seemed amazingly stupid and wasteful to me. It's one of the biggest energy drains in your home. I recently had to replace my ancient water heater, and would have gone tankless (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-1790278-5717495 is a source I was looking at for info) both on general principle and to lower my monthly bills - but I'm moving soon, and the initial cost is considerably higher than the old standby wasteful water tank. If the tank breaks in the next home, however, I'm definitely going tankless.

Good luck in your quest!

[Bruce McAuley]

9. We've had one for years

First a small Paloma in our mountain cabin, then a larger one in our present mobile home. It's a little slow to get down to the kitchen from the bathroom where it lives, but otherwise it works great, and is very efficient, and takes up very little space.
Now the Chinese are in the market, and prices have dropped, but I don't know the what the quality is.
Good luck.

Bruce