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Does anyone have experience with these that they are willing to share? My parents tried one but it was years ago (over 25) and I'm assuming modern ones are much better. We are currently starting the process of building a house and looking at alternatives. Gas is not an option.
My current experience is the new ones are just as lousy as the old ones. They do not produce the hot water they claim. One unit I installed a few years ago wouldn't hit half of its rating. The manufacturer said it was working fine. The H/O was screwed with it. I won't install one anymore. Wanna see an electric meter goin' like a jet engine- get one of these and watch the your electric bill go to the moon. And you might just a little warm water too....maybe.
If it's going to be in a garage area I'd be inclined to go with a heat pump water heater.
For new construction, where you can position a heat pump hot water heater in a space like a garage or utility space that benefits from its cooling effect / waste heat recovery it is an excellent option for those that have no access to natural gas.
Tankless water heaters have a host of issues that cannot be overcome. Scale build us brreally is problem. Anything that effects flow can be huge problem...
Know how your coffee maker scales up and wont heat the water anymore so you need to use vinegar or coffee maker cleaner? Same thing for tank-less water heaters. They need to be cleaned at least once a year, and the electric even more often.
Supposedly they don't save much money from an energy efficiency standpoint. The units are much more expensive than their tank counterparts and most tradesmen don't know how to install and service them.
Tankless heaters offer an advantage when you want a relatively unlimited amount of hot water at irregular times, with long periods of not using any hot water. Like a vacation cabin. They do need very soft water or will scale up big time. They don't really save you anything on a regular house, where you use at least some hot water every day.
Probably if you want to save a bit on power, the suggestion to use a heat-pump type water heater is a good one.
Awhile back I did a "back of envelope" calculation on how much heat my own old school electric water heater lost to ambient. I came out with something like 60W worth of heat, assuming the basement was 60F, the water inside the tank was 120F, and the heater was about R5 insulated.
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Agreed!
