The Best Tankless Water Heater For Your Home?
Our house has been humming along on a tankless water heater for two years now. At the time I didn’t know a thing about these heaters, but after a vacation to Italy, with my wife, we came home with an awareness of how popular they are in an energy conscious Europe.
With all the information that could be found, I jumped into it because I knew we would need a new heater before long.
Your first question probably is: Was it as easy and as cost saving as they say?
Before I answer that I have to tell you the simple difference with tankless hot water heaters. Unlike tank-type heaters, which allow you to use a many gallons per minute as you want until the tank runs out, tankless models run on a different idea.
With an on-demand heater it’s more cost effective to use that same amount of water one faucet at a time. Think of it as a very long train of tank cars, delivering hot water, one at a time, rather than one huge water tank.
This way of thinking will allow you to buy a smaller, less expensive model. Of course, if you can’t, there are very large tankless models – both natural gas and electric – that have the power to meet any home’s needs. But is it possible to get enough energy into the house to run them? That‘s the question.
Replacing a water heater is something that everyone has to face sooner or later. Sooner is better, I found out. Because this means that you can use your old water heater as a passive preheater for the tankless hot water heater, which will increase the gallons per minute without increasing the cost of installation.
It’s all spelled out in this “Best of Tankless” site. This is the same principle as hybrid water heaters, now on the drawing board.
So now I have finally answered your question: If you can live with this new way of heating water and you use a passive preheater system, yes, you can have unlimited hot water and start saving money from day one. You may be able to install it yourself.
All this is spelled out in easy 1-2-3 steps in a site I put together called Best-Tankless-Hot-Water-Heater.info and that is what I’ve tried to do; show how to determine the best model for home use and what each model has to offer. Hope you find it usefull!