I have a small house and live alone. I don’t use a lot of hot water (I don’t have a dish washer, but it would be nice…some day…). It seems to me my current hot water heater is a waste of energy.
It would go in the cabinet in my kitchen where my existing (and tiny…I am SO tired of five minute showers) hot water heater is. Because I could never have a large water heater, I think a tankless one would solve my problems. And it wouldn’t take long to get hot water flowing, because it would be in the kitchen and on the other side of the bathroom wall.
How hot can they deliver the water? And is it like they say…continuous?
I have a gas one, and it seems very efficient. I live in a small two-bedroom house with two of us in it, and my wife is unemployed so it’s on most of the time. We’ve been living here for four months and the bills so far have been pretty low.
The heating is particularly effective. If there’s a drawback, it’s the hot water: you have to get a good flow going before the heater kicks in, which could be wasteful of both water and gas. A light flow with the faucet set to “hot” will not trigger the heater to come on, so you have to start with it full on, then turn it down or add cold water. I therefore have some problems getting the shower at the right temperature. Apart from that, I recommend it.
I use an electric tankless heater, and it’s giving me very good service so far. It is preferred that it be on a stand-alone circuit as it can put on quite a heavy load. You can adjust the temperature differential, I have somewhere around here the instructions but you can get it pretty darn hot.
I have the Stiebel Eltron DHC-E20 and love it. How well a tankless system will work in your place depends on several factors. This thing tops out at 52°C increase over the incoming water temp, so in the winter when the ground water is just a few degrees over freezing, I find that I have to back off on the flow rate if I want a steaming hot shower. But it’s not a big deal, as the water mains in this area rarely gets that cold.
Since you live alone, there is no danger of somebody else deciding to wash their hands in the kitchen sink while you’re showering. I have a 1BR condo but two people live here, so we need to make an effort not to use hot water when one of us is showering. But that’s like, what… ten minutes out of the day? In the future I plan to give the kitchen it’s own point of use hot water feed.
And I did notice a drop in the electric bills when it was installed - something like $10 to $12 a month lower. And I’ve got almost two years worth of electric bills here to confirm that I didn’t just have a month or two of fluke readings.
Here’s what it looks like in mid-construction. I purposely moved it to the wall right behind the shower so that I would not have to wait 15 or 20 seconds to feel a temp change when I adjusted the shower controls.
I am investigating the possibility of installing one as well. Two things I have learned are: a family of 4 with 2 showers is well served by a 3 gall/minute heater. Remember that even when both showers are on, you aren’t likely to be using just hot water.
And second, no question you need to have a dedicated line to the heater (assuming electric).
I have a propane-fired one in my new house. It’s a commercial grade 8 gallons per minute.
It’s a Rinnai Continuum, if you care to look it up. No real problems, although if your supply line gets clogged up with dirt or debris, you have to clean a little filter on the unit frequently.
It also powers our in-floor heating system, so this winter it’s been on almost constantly.
