Ideal Bite

I love this tip for today! I now live in Costa Rica and "on-demand heaters" are the norm here, if they have hot water. Most Ticos have suicide showers, which heat the water right over your head, as you shower. The on demand heaters are either electric or bottle gas, gas being the most economical. The one thing which surprised me, is the low purchase price, usually around $150, fully installed. When I looked into purchasing one in the states, it was a lot more, and with installation, it would have been double the price of the storage tank type. Makes me wonder, why??? Does the gas industry influence the appliance industry as they do the auto industry in the states? Interesting!

We just installed one last week. We had a little bit of sticker shock, but the benefits outweigh the cost! The hot water is continuous and we feel good about it.

another way to do this at least for showers is to turn your hot water heater temp to "vacation". Turn it up about 10 minutes or so before you want to shower, turn it back down BEFORE you actually shower. you are only heating enough water for the shower. we've been doing it for over a year and it works great AND saves money.

I've had a tankless water heater for years, it's my oil burner. I don't have a separate water heater.

30 years ago I had a tankless water heater in the apartment I had in Germany. I have been a fan ever since but have never had another--no other enlightened landlords.

We have one too and it's great! Particularly when it is assisted by some geothermal heated water. Two things to consider though: 1) Electric versions are a real drain on your community electric grid, forcing it to work extra hard (i.e. use more energy) every time you use it. Gas or propane powered ones are better. 2)Don't use the fact that you have never-ending hot water to justify longer showers! You still should keep them short and sweet to save water!

After exhaustive research on tankless hot water heaters, the biggest thing I found out is that, they do not work well if your ground water is very cold. We live in the Colorado High Country where the ground water in the winter time is 40F or less (not technically freezing though!). The amount of energy for the tankless system to heat water from 40F to 120F in an "instant" is tremendous, thus negating your energy savings. If you live in a warmer climate like the southern US, Florida, and I saw someone from Costa Rica, these are great because your groundwater is already tepid so you don't need to heat it as great a temperature difference. Also, on the High Efficiency Boiler system, it's not that efficient if you have Hot Water Baseboard Heat. The HEB are most efficient with in-floor radiant heat. So, after all this research we discovered that a bigger boiler with a side arm indirect water heater is the best way to go at our altitude and climate. Of course solar would be the most efficient, but also the most expensive.

thanks for taking a stand with on-demand water heating. Consumer Search endorses tankless water heating which it said saves energy (why, tankless= on demand?). most cited water heaters in 2007

I was reading through some of these comments and am wondering what kind of system is best for a big family. Is "a high-efficiency boiler for a heating system, and an indirect water heater" the best option? How exactly does this work? How do you control which system you're using at any given time?

For a big family, I stand by my previous post: solar plus indirect if a high-efficiency boiler is part already of the plan; otherwise, solar plus an on demand booster. Traci makes very strong points about ground water temp, and her altitude is not likely to help either! However, both those factors effect any water heating system, just to different degrees. These factors push the maximum output of a water heater, which is most limited in an on-demand system because of the short time they have to do the work. Solar HW max output is only limited by the number of panels and the size of the storage tank, and is unique in that its operation is helped in some ways by higher altitude. That said, Traci is likely a little confused about the cost of solar hot water systems as they are by far the cheapest in the long run, but also very affordable these days. The affordability comes before you subtract from the costs any state and federal insentives or low interest loan programs. (http://www.dsireusa.org/ http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=bldrs_lenders_raters.energy_effici...) Even if the best financing you can get is a 19% APR, you will likely will be better off month to month with some solar hot water than without, especially for a big family. You just need a long enough term on the loan, which could easily be 20 years and still make financial sense because of the long life of such systems. Of course, we each must do our own math. When doing so, don't forget to take into account the rising costs of fuels. (BTW, when you have to burn something, think hard about wood: pellet boilers are only bested in economy and greenness by cord wood systems, which are much less convenient.)