Any thoughts on if an electric unit (vs gas) would be a viable, and great long term upgrade from a traditional tank unit. Thanks.

When we were shopping for one, we were told electric is OK for 1 or two in the family, but more, gas is more efficient.

I'm in the same "no gas" boat.
Economically gas is MUCH better.
However, if you are willing to go to the extra electrical cost of runs and wiring it is a nice addition but not much of a $ saver.
It does save "space" though.

If you don't have NG can you get LP to your property, if so you can run the LP version and it's much more efficient than electric.

Electric versions are not as good as gas and best used as add ons for long runs like a master bath that's across the house from the tank.

We replaced the LP 50 gallon tank when it went out with a Rennai Tankless, it's cut the propane bill down, and we have endless hot water, down side is the amount of time it takes to get the water hot at the longest run, but it's not that bad, and I just turn on the shower while I'm doing other things during warm up, it's not really that long we had to wait on hot water from the tank to get to the shower anyway.

I would opt for LP if you can, otherwise stick with a tank if you have to stay electric.

My tankless water heater is gas fired and economical in a two person household.

HRK --

Who is your propane supplier? We are all-electric now, but I sure would like to convert hot water to propane, maybe cooking, and clothes drier as well.

House heat, not used that much in our short winter season, is geothermal heat exchange supplemented by strip heater in air handler when needed. Not sure if gas conversion would pay off for this.

What is your experience?

Because they heat water on demand, they require large sums of energy over short duration to operate. The net takeaway, in all likelihood you'll have to significantly upgrade the power supply. Depending upon the unit you'd be looking at 50-100 amps at 220 VAC. For comparison, type typical electric water heater uses 30 amp breaker.

One word of caution on the electric models.
Around the country there is discussion by many utilities about the concept of introducing a "demand" component to residential billing. Demand charges are usually found in commercial and industrial accounts.
Think, when do you use hot water. Early morning and in the early evening when the evening meal is prepared. That is likely when you are using AC, heat, TV and other devices.

Take a look at the current requirements on them. Make sure you have enough breaker space to handle one.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
HRK --

Who is your propane supplier? We are all-electric now, but I sure would like to convert hot water to propane, maybe cooking, and clothes drier as well.

House heat, not used that much in our short winter season, is geothermal heat exchange supplemented by strip heater in air handler when needed. Not sure if gas conversion would pay off for this.

What is your experience?

We use AmeriGas there are several companies in the CFL area and we've had other suppliers, the house came with a pig outside when we bought it 20 years ago, a leaking solar pool heating panel over the years dripped water on it and it had to be replaced, AmeriGas made us the best deal, pull the old pig and put in their pig for a small monthly rental fee.

We use LP for the fireplace (rare) hot water and I put in an LP range/cooktop when we last upgraded, once the oven unit takes a dive or the wife insists the over will be replaced with a gas convection oven. Same for the dryer, right now we're burning pure 220 to dry clothes, gas would be better.

Nice thing about LP is we had hot water when the rest of the neighborhood was out of power during the hurricanes, I thought about offering free hot showers using the outdoor pool shower to the neighbors with hot wives but alas it was shot down by SWMBO right quickly..

I would shop it to all the vendors that service your area, install pig, rental, and price per gallon for LP...

I wouldn't invest in converting the house heat to LP, heck I havent had the heat cycle on in the house other than to just cycle it to be sure it works once a year.

I bought a house that has two of them at about 80 amps a piece. I would not recommend the Bosch units. The heating chamber is plastic and the amount of flow needed to turn them on is too high in my opinion. Bosch from what i have heard will only talk to a licensed electrician if you call their help line.


I will be replacing them as soon as I get propane service.

What's your current needs? Number of showers/tubs, sq footage of house, number of people living there?

We have a gas one at a weekly vacation rental house I manage/maintain. It's a Rhinnea and mounted outside on the exterior wall of the house, you do not need to hook up any vent piping, it just needs the water lines hooked up, gas line (it's gas), and I think a low amperage electrical line (can't remember for sure). In the 3 years I've known it, we've never once touched it. It's great because the house sometimes sits empty for a month, and sometimes it has 6 weekly guests staying in it.

Electric ones need new heavier wiring run to them and breaker, and a lot of times you need to upgrade your entire electric service coming to the house and for 2 people taking 2-4 showers a day, it most likely isn't worth it. Also, if you lose electricity you lose hot water immediately.

Have two friends who are builders in an all electric neighborhood. Asked each if I should consider installing in my house. Both were adamant about staying away from electric units. Not economic or reliable. Frequent breakdowns.

When my water heater died last year, I considered an electric tankless heater (I don't have gas service available).
My son-in-law's brother is a plumbing contractor; he told me the electric ones are junk and to stay away from them.

I went with a propane tankless heater. Everyone I talked to steered me away from electrical with the exception of the electric company.

With the electrical demands of the tankless I would have been using 120 amps on a 200 amp service so I'd be looking at additional costs of upgrading that also.

It just wasn't cost effective compared to propane. No NG is my area.

I went with the propane Rinnai unit. Bought everything I needed (unit with elbows and venting) off of Amazon for right around $600. About the same amount to have it installed (licensed plumber required for warrantee purposes).

It's cut my propane bill about in half over my old 50 gallon upright.

I won't go back to a tanked system.

My only complaint, though, is it does take about 45 seconds to get to the kitchen sink. Not a huge deal though. Small trade off.

I have extremely hard water as well which requires (well...not required, but recommended) a flush every six months. All that takes is a submersible pump, two hoses and about three gallons of vinegar in a 5 gallon bucket (maybe $100). Let it run for an hour or two and you're good to go.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
I went with the propane Rinnai unit. Bought everything I needed (unit with elbows and venting) off of Amazon for right around $600. About the same amount to have it installed (licensed plumber required for warrantee purposes).

It's cut my propane bill about in half over my old 50 gallon upright.

I won't go back to a tanked system.

Similar situation, but the plumber provided and I can't really quantify savings as both kids got to the point where they stared showering a lot more soon after we switched heaters.

At our last house we had recirculating hot water. Apparently there is at least one (and possibly more) tankless model out there that does recirculation as well, so you always have hot water at the taps. Seems like it might be nice, but you'd lose a lot of the savings you get with tankless.

Big fan of the Rinnai propane powered tankless. Have been pretty happy with Amerigas too. Were I doing it over again, I'd investigate buying the tank(s) as then one can shop the gas and get the suppliers to compete with each other rather than being tied. That said I've stuck with Amerigas the 11+ years we've been here and never seriously considered switching.