Our Experience Moving to a Tankless Water Heater
Note from Jess: This is the first-ever guest blog on this site. It is from my lovely husband, Jonathon Stewart. Our neighbor recently asked us for some information about our tankless water heater, so I asked him to turn his email to her into a blog so that others might benefit. Take it away, Jon!
We had a tankless water heater installed almost exactly a year ago. The installation was completed by Oakland Rooter - a local plumbing company - and overall we've been very satisfied.
Why did we choose a tankless water heater?
A big benefit of tankless water heaters is that they can save interior home space by being mounted outside of your house. For us this was the primary reason that we decided to go with a tankless water heater - to save space. Our old water heater was installed in the corner of our pantry and took up quite a bit of space that otherwise could be better used. So we decided to install the tankless water heater in conjunction with renovating our pantry. See the bottom of this post for images of the pantry renovation project that required removing our water heater (that weird corner thing was where it was stored).
An important note: We live in a moderate climate and therefore mounting our unit outside was a viable option. If you live in a colder climate, you will would likely need to install your unit indoors.
How is the performance of the tankless water heater?
In terms of day-to-day use, we have noticed that it takes about 10-15 seconds longer for the water to get hot at the faucet. Given how a tankless heater operates, there is really no way to avoid this delay, but you can purchase more advanced units that can minimize this delay. For example, some higher end units support recirculation pumps that can help. We purchased a unit that supports a recirculation pump, but decided not install one (it requires some extra plumbing) as the the delay has not been a dealbreaker for us. Most of our water needs (washing hands, cooking, cleaning) are fine with lukewarm or cold water, so we do not mind waiting 10-15 seconds for taking a shower or bath.
We also appreciate that a tankless heater never “runs out” of hot water like tank-based water heaters do. On days when we have guests, it is nice for everyone to be able to take showers in a row without the last few people having to deal with cold water.
Tankless water heaters save money and will pay for themselves over time, right?
To start, tankless units typically cost more than a tank-based heater and the installation cost is usually higher: propane units usually need a higher capacity gas line installed and electric units usually need an upgraded electric panel and/or breaker installed.
Gas Cost (in dollars)
We have saved money on our gas bill installing a tankless heater. The table here compares our aggregate gas usage and gas cost before and after we had the the tankless unit installed during the months of April - Sept (I excluded other months because we have a gas furnace which can influence our gas usage). We spent $99 for those months with our old water heater, and $52 with the tankless water heater.
As you can see, we decreased our gas cost by 50%, or about $50, in the warmer months. Any money saved is great, however, with this amount of savings it would take us about 15 years to account for the higher installation price. Of course, this will vary based on the unit you purchase and complexity of installation.
So the moral of the story is that your tankless unit probably won’t pay for itself for many years, if at all. We knew this going in, but we still valued the space that we would be saving so the extra cost was worth it to us.
Lastly, I will say that the market is trending toward tankless heaters. So units will like get less expensive in the coming years. Additionally, you may want to consider how installing or not installing a tankless could impact your home value.
What else should we consider?
Other aspects to keep in mind as you are thinking about your water heater choice:
Tankless heaters, as mentioned above, are more energy efficient, minimizing your impact on the environment.
Some people consider the water in their water heater as their emergency store of water that they might use if they had no other access to water. A tankless heater will not serve this purpose. We have frozen bottles of water in our chest freezer for the dual purpose of emergency water and making the freezer more energy efficient, so we do not need a water heater tank for emergencies.
Which unit did you install?
We chose the Navien NPE-240A over the RINNAI RUR models. These are both higher-end units that are highly energy efficient and have high flow rates.
We decided to look at higher end units because we wanted the option of a recirculation pump if needed and we wanted a unit that wouldn’t be too outdated if we sell our house in the next 10 years. I ended up going with the Navien because it has slightly better warranty than the Rinnai.
