Posted by Kromey at 6:50pm Jun 8 '12When we were doing energy-efficiency upgrades on our home, the salesperson said replacing our hot water heater with a tankless one wouldn't be worth it, because they are expensive to buy and install and don't save enough money to be worth it. But that was 3 years ago, they may have come down in price.
I've been doing some research into this, and found a similar claim from about 4 years ago, although it was more complete in stating that the tankless water heater itself is 1.5-3 times the cost of a standard tank water heater, plus more expensive to install.
However, looking around at today's prices -- that's no longer true. I've found 6.5GPM tankless water heaters for the same price as upper-middle-range tank water heaters! I can't comment on installation costs, since I've never had one installed, but another site I found from about 1 year ago points out that while the tankless systems are more expensive to install, their longer lifespan (20 years versus 10-13 years) more than makes up for that -- and that's without even including the energy savings in the calculations!
I figure it'll still be several years out before I'm looking to replace this tank water heater, and by then tankless may be the de facto standard -- it'll certainly be at least much improved over what's available today!
I've been doing some research into this, and found a similar claim from about 4 years ago, although it was more complete in stating that the tankless water heater itself is 1.5-3 times the cost of a standard tank water heater, plus more expensive to install.
However, looking around at today's prices -- that's no longer true. I've found 6.5GPM tankless water heaters for the same price as upper-middle-range tank water heaters! I can't comment on installation costs, since I've never had one installed, but another site I found from about 1 year ago points out that while the tankless systems are more expensive to install, their longer lifespan (20 years versus 10-13 years) more than makes up for that -- and that's without even including the energy savings in the calculations!
I figure it'll still be several years out before I'm looking to replace this tank water heater, and by then tankless may be the de facto standard -- it'll certainly be at least much improved over what's available today!
Re: Yeah, we have an electric stove and dryer too. - Kromey