Tankless electric water heater anyone?

[DoWhat]

Just for you..

Well that beer is on the floor only because the two beer fridges are full...

I think you should clean up that area.
Looks very disorganized.

 

[DoWhat]

Your wife should buy you some socks without holes in them.


And while she's at it, she should make you a sammich. Right, DoWhat?


(Left foot, big toe)

Sammich good.

 

[getbent]

I'm looking for feedback from someone who has a residential, on-demand / tankless water heater who is also on well water. Why? I'm wondering if the well water deposits quickly cake on the elements of this heater thus requiring a lot of maintenance on the in-line water filtration add on.

If anyone has done this I'd be very appreciative of a response including the make and model of the tankless unit you purchased. I am assuming there might be a difference in electric vs. gas elements but it may not really matter eh?

thanking you in advance.

Are you going the tankless route? Husband has talked about doing this for a few years. We have well water and one of those pressure tanks as well. Did you find any tidbits of info you could share with someone thinking of going the same route? Things to look for (in the water heater as well as the home)?

 

[acommondisaster]

Update, please. What did you go with? We've been thinking tankless for our place up in PA - right now the water heater is under two of the kitchen cabinets. Could it be mounted in an unheated porch? We have a well, propane and only need hot water for one bathroom and the kitchen - there's another small water heater on the other side of the house for the other bathroom and washer.

 

[BOP]

I don't have a lot of usage, so I'm considering the hybrid water heater. It's really a heat pump with electric high demand. Supposed to be very efficient. Downside is that it needs a drain, as the heat pump acts like a dehumidifier and I don't have a drain in the basement. Have to get creative here.

Depends on how much condensation you have to remove. I have a couple of condensate pumps (around 20.00 @ Lowes) that run the water outside, once it reaches a certain level. I tapped into the french drain outside. Works good.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_240053-18889-UL-AC-PUMP_0__

 

[BOP]

One of the things I'd like to do is to get a point-of-use water heater for the bathrooms (they adjoin). They make them as small as 2.5 gallons. The drawback of the gas tankless is that it can take up to a couple of minutes to get hot water to the bathrooms in the winter. Gonna have to do some research to see if this will be counter productive as far as cost savings on my electrical.

 

[acommondisaster]

One of the things I'd like to do is to get a point-of-use water heater for the bathrooms (they adjoin). They make them as small as 2.5 gallons. The drawback of the gas tankless is that it can take up to a couple of minutes to get hot water to the bathrooms in the winter. Gonna have to do some research to see if this will be counter productive as far as cost savings on my electrical.

Please be sure to share any thoughts you have after your research. We're just in the "considering if this is worth it" stage - there are other more pressing issues in the home - like a wet crawl space and pipes freezing like mad in the winter.

 

[BOP]

Please be sure to share any thoughts you have after your research. We're just in the "considering if this is worth it" stage - there are other more pressing issues in the home - like a wet crawl space and pipes freezing like mad in the winter.

I can answer the crawlspace question: encapsulation. I've done a ton of research on this topic, and I am absolutely convinced that closing off the crawlspace and conditioning is the way to go. Be warned, however: it's not cheap, though you can save a bunch by doing most, if not all of the work yourself. Most of the builders, contractors, and people who study these things are now saying that closing the crawlspace to the outside and treating it as though it were part of the living space (heating it, cooling it, keeping the humidity at a constant level) is the way to go.

 

[somdfunguy]

I put in a tankless natural gas water heater a year ago replacing an electric tank. My electric bill dropped about $50 a month compared to the the previous year. Gas bill went up less than $10. There's maybe an extra 30 second wait in the morning.

 

[BOP]

Please be sure to share any thoughts you have after your research. We're just in the "considering if this is worth it" stage - there are other more pressing issues in the home - like a wet crawl space and pipes freezing like mad in the winter.

Our heat pump is old...more than a couple of decades, so probably sooner, rather than later, we'll have to replace it. When I bought the tankless, I bought a dual use unit. Half of it feeds the kitchen and bathroom, and half of it functions as a boiler. When we replace the evaporator part of the heating system, we'll install one with what is essentially a radiator, fed by the boiler. When the fan blows over the radiator, it's the same thing as your car heater.

 

[somdfunguy]

I can answer the crawlspace question: encapsulation. I've done a ton of research on this topic, and I am absolutely convinced that closing off the crawlspace and conditioning is the way to go. Be warned, however: it's not cheap, though you can save a bunch by doing most, if not all of the work yourself. Most of the builders, contractors, and people who study these things are now saying that closing the crawlspace to the outside and treating it as though it were part of the living space (heating it, cooling it, keeping the humidity at a constant level) is the way to go.

That's how mine is, it's great except for termite inspections.

 

[acommondisaster]

No heat pump at our place - it's up in the "mountains" of PA. We've got some sort of in the floor propane heater. I was scared to death of it when I saw it, but it's really awesome for heating the house- very toasty. As far as encapsulation - I think my husband and brother-in-law have been discussing putting down some sort of plastic sheeting(?) and doing crawlspace vent fans that turn on at a certain humidity point. Not sure what the plan is for the pipes, but I've been suggesting something like Easy Heat, that would turn on to warm the pipes when the temp gets down to freezing. I think my husband and nephew repaired about 30 splits in the pipes after this bad winter we had (everything was fine when we were up in Feb, so we thought we'd dodged the bullet, but I guess there was one more bad freeze after that).
My son's new house has a crawl space much like you describe - in fact I think his furnace or something is in it. It's a clean, dry space - I've told him that's where they should head if there's every a tornado (lol) - don't know if that's feasible, but it sure looks like safe.