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I can't speak from personal experience, but I hear that the tankless hot water heaters work fgreat if you have propane or gas, but not as well with electric. Anybody have more info on that?
I have one that runs on propane and has electric igniter run by two d batteries. i went from electric 40 gallon to what im explaning now and i save like 40.00 bucks a month on my electric bills. easy to install to, it took me about 45 minutes to install mine. my wife likes it, she can take a 45 min shower and run the dish washer at the same time and still have hot water. there well worth the money. i wouldn't have anything else now.
I would like to find out if anyone is having problems with their power companies about the tankless water heaters. My has threatened to have me put on a differenet pay schedule that other people just because I told them I have a tankless water heater they are going to charge me 10.00 per klw hr saying that if I take a shower once it could cost me 170.00 being that my heater maxes at 17 klw's. Can anyone explain this to me or let me know if they have had similar problems
Thank You
Alterdstitches
I don't see how they can get away with that... In California the PUC regulates Power Companies...
Power Companies do have different rate schedules and the cost per Kilowatt can increase dramatically once you go over baseline.
Power companies love gradual, even loads... Peek loads create a lot of additional expense and no extra revenue... Equipment has to be sized for the highest load... even if that load only lasts a few minutes.
My uncle has the opposite scenario... He has two meters and his night time electric rate is about half of the standard rate. His tank type water heater gradually heats all night and then a timer shuts off the heat coil to get the low rate.
Location: Peachtree Corners - A lovely close-in area of Gwinnett County
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rubytue
Lowes/HD will be happy to take you money and hire an installer for you. Or you could just hire one yourself. You will be paying a markup that goes to the corporate office, and the local guy who does the install will get a small percentage of what you pay. My personal opinion is to find a someone yourself. Keep your money local, and it will probably cost less.
If you go electric, you will need an electrician and a plumber. The electric ones draw a lot of power, so like TransAm mentioned, you may need to upgrade your service to 200 amp (if you aren't at 200 amo already). Plus a dedicated circuit will need to be run. I don't recall off hand how much power they draw, but I know my husband (an electrician) took one look at the power requirements and said we will stick to our oil fired H20 heater tanks.
If you go gas, a plumber should be able to do it all, as they run gas lines, too.
As a Home Depot Associate and one who has sold the tanklless systems to customers, let me share the reason you WANT a Home Depot to install these heaters. Once Home Depot installs anything, they own it! That means that they will do whatever they can to make you happy should it fail for a fault of theirs or the equipment. Will Bubba do that for you? No, because he cannot afford to do so. That little bit of extra you say that goes to the corporate office actually goes back to keeping the consumer a happy customer of The Home Depot. I have seen too many times where if it had been my store I would have told the customer tough luck.SORRY! The Home Depot, I have found, always sides on the best interests of the customer, even when I knew they had lost money on the transaction. That is why I like working there. Come see me at Store 131 in Hardware anytime.
If you go electric, you will need an electrician and a plumber. The electric ones draw a lot of power, so like TransAm mentioned, you may need to upgrade your service to 200 amp (if you aren't at 200 amo already). Plus a dedicated circuit will need to be run. I don't recall off hand how much power they draw, but I know my husband (an electrician) took one look at the power requirements and said we will stick to our oil fired H20 heater tanks.
this is the reason i installed a propane tankless. i wanted to save money on my electric bill. i know where i live propane is far cheaper than electric.
If you go electric, you will need an electrician and a plumber. The electric ones draw a lot of power, so like TransAm mentioned, you may need to upgrade your service to 200 amp (if you aren't at 200 amo already).
I currently have 150 Amp service and figured out that if I want a true whole house Electric Tankless that I need to move to 200 AMP service.
Any idea what it costs to upgrade my service to 200 AMP from a 150 AMP?
...... i installed a propane tankless. i wanted to save money on my electric bill. i know where i live propane is far cheaper than electric.
Have you tracked how many "minutes/gallons" of hot water you use and how much propane is consumed? I would be interested in how much propane is required to operate the unit. You indicated earlier that your historical usage was at a cost of Approx $40 per month when heated by an elect 40gal traditional unit. Assuming you have not drastically changed your consumption volume, pehaps when used changed due to capacity factors, the cost of the propane volume should equate to an equivilent cost between the two fuels and methods of heating.
My house is already propane since I live in the country and it would be interesting to get an idea of the consumption rate you are seeing.
it's hard to get an exsact figure on propane useage because i cook with it and my clothes dryer runs on it. i just know when i switched from electric to propane on my water heater that was the difference on my bill. also before i switched over to a propane dryer my electric bill was even worse. but like i said propane is far cheaper here than electric. i'm very happy i switched The last place i lived everything was electric. so what a savings.
The big whole house units that are electric, draw between 90 and 120 AMPS when used usually. That can add up in a hurry if you have high electric rates.
that SET site widow posted- the highest electrical draw was 27 kw for whole house model, but consider its only when the hot water is demanded, which is never continuous for hours. as opposed to the regular on/off cycle operating continuously for a hot water heater even when there is no demand- you can do nothing but save money for operating costs. how quick the recoup is vs a regular hotwater heater is another question though.
Anyone have any experience with the "Hybrid" tankless water heaters? Apparently they have a small tank with always hot water and the rest of the demand is met by a tankless heater. Sounded interesting, in theory.
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