water heater vs tankless hot water

[gorevs9]

I'm in the process of replacing my old oil fired boiler. Besides the external hot water tank, what are the major differences. I currently have tankless, but is a separate water heater more efficient?

I live in the northeast, so in the winter months I basically get free hot water, but in the summer my oil consumption is used to continuously heat water.

My estimates run about $1000 less for tankless.

 

[SueDonJ]

I'm in the process of replacing my old oil fired boiler. Besides the external hot water tank, what are the major differences. I currently have tankless, but is a separate water heater more efficient?

I live in the northeast, so in the winter months I basically get free hot water, but in the summer my oil consumption is used to continuously heat water.

My estimates run about $1000 less for tankless.

We converted from oil heat/tankless hot water to gas heat and a hot water tank four years ago, and couldn't be happier with the results. Granted, the old boiler was really old so probably wasn't all that efficient, but we had terrible problems with hot water during the spring and fall months when it was too warm to blast the heat but not warm enough to want anything but a hot shower. The water during those months was just too cool for comfort. During the winter when the heat was on full-time we had no problems with hot water; during the summer when the heat was off we didn't care because we wanted cool showers.

Like I said, though, that old system was probably long past its prime by the time we replaced it. A newer model of that oil system may have alleviated our problems but we didn't want to chance it, especially with these New England seasons.

We got a discount on the installation of the gas line and the furnace itself because the street was being retro-fitted for gas at the time. The gas company put fliers in all of the homeowners' mailboxes about two months prior to digging, and we were coincidentally putting on an addition at the time so our contractor worked with his plumber to add it to job list. I think we're on pace to break even with the total installation costs somewhere around the 7-year mark, and will see 10-12% savings thereafter (if either gas or oil prices don't fluctuate wildly.)

 

[SueDonJ]

And geeze, again I went off tangent and didn't answer your main question. Sorry.

Even if you keep the oil, I'd still go with a hot water tank over tankless, for the temperature fluctuations I mentioned before.

 

[NWL]

We have a propane fired boiler for heat and had a separate tank for the hot water. We replaced the separate tank a year ago and installed an electric hot water heater. We are obviously using less propane. Big change. Since we are members of the local electric co-op, our rates for electric are lower than the price of propane these days. We also got the rebate for installing an energy saver appliance.

This probably doesn't answer your question completely, but thought I'd give you an idea of what we did and how happy we are with the decision.

Cheers!

 

[mbeach89]

Switched to a tankless hot water heater approx 4 years ago. I'm sure I'm saving propane, but what I really like is never running out of hot water! No more waiting 30 minutes or so for the water in the tank to heat back up. Love it !

 

[vacationhopeful]

One of my good friend's put in a propane tankless HW heater several years ago to replace his electric HW. Loves it, but he lives alone, travels at least 1 full week a month and 1 additional long weekend a month, doesn't cook (reheats) and barely can remember to close his windows.

So, heating his hot water only to shower once a day or to run his dishwasher or clothes washer once a week has saved him money. His cost was about $1200. Added it after he put in propane highefficency HW baseboard. Will convert to propane cooking if his dryer or stove need to be replaced.

 

[NWL]

One of my good friend's put in a propane tankless HW heater several years ago to replace his electric HW. Loves it, but he lives alone, travels at least 1 full week a month and 1 additional long weekend a month, doesn't cook (reheats) and barely can remember to close his windows.

So, heating his hot water only to shower once a day or to run his dishwasher or clothes washer once a week has saved him money. His cost was about $1200. Added it after he put in propane highefficency HW baseboard. Will convert to propane cooking if his dryer or stove need to be replaced.

Good point for the OP. How many people in your house? If you have a large family, you may end up spending more dollars on propane using a tankless.

It's interesting that posters are saying they are switching to propane. When we built 12 years ago in NW Montana, propane was much cheaper than electric, even at co-op rates. We installed all propane appliances at that time. The price difference has changed over the past couple of years to the point it made economical sense to convert what appliances we could. We've replaced the hot water heater and dryer with electric ones and received the energy star rebates. Not looking at big bucks on the rebates, but they help. The rates for propane, gas, and electric really vary from location to location!

Cheers!

 

[MelBay]

We had a tankless natural gas water heater installed about 6 months ago. Our gas consumption went down about 10-15%. We always have plenty of hot water, even when both kids are home from college. You do have to wait maybe 20 seconds when you turn on the tap, but that's the only drawback I can see. Ours was about $2000 installed, but we got a credit from the state for installing it, along with the gas company credit, and then we get a federal tax credit when I file our return this year. I think that takes it back to about $1200. Plus, we felt like it was the right/green thing to do. A new, old-fashioned one was about $700 installed, I think....

Man, I hate spending that kind of money for something that doesn't look good and you can't sit on. If I'm giving someone that much $$, I want furniture or carpet or something!

 

[Born2Travel]

Man, I hate spending that kind of money for something that doesn't look good and you can't sit on. If I'm giving someone that much $$, I want furniture or carpet or something!

My sentiments exactly - I only want to pay for the "fun" stuff that looks pretty or I can enjoy (though I do enjoy hot showers) but DH can't understand why I want him to pay for all the functional stuff while I pay for the fun and pretty stuff. Sorry, alittle off topic, but I really relate to this

 

[hvacrsteve]

I'm in the process of replacing my old oil fired boiler. Besides the external hot water tank, what are the major differences. I currently have tankless, but is a separate water heater more efficient?

I live in the northeast, so in the winter months I basically get free hot water, but in the summer my oil consumption is used to continuously heat water.

My estimates run about $1000 less for tankless.

My choice would a high eff, boiler, gas, propane or oil in that order with an indirect hot water tank, it qualifies for the tax rebate of $1,500.00 and does a great job.
I have a Monitor MZ40 in my house with an 80 gallon, stainless steel tank.
I also recommend Triangle tube, but not their indirect tanks.
I have true endless hot water, radiant floors, snow melted driveway and a heated garage floor!
I also have 5.5 bathrooms, two with rain heads and we never run out of hot water even with a house full of guest!

 

[gorevs9]

Good point for the OP. How many people in your house? If you have a large family, you may end up spending more dollars on propane using a tankless.

Thanks for all you responses.
We are a family of three adults. Youngest daughter is back home from college and currently sorting our her next move. We have a small ranch (maybe 1200 sg ft tops) and use approx 700 gals of oil/year. Probably 200-250 gals for hot water in the summer.

 

[NWL]

Thanks for all you responses.
We are a family of three adults. Youngest daughter is back home from college and currently sorting our her next move. We have a small ranch (maybe 1200 sg ft tops) and use approx 700 gals of oil/year. Probably 200-250 gals for hot water in the summer.

Maybe tankless is the way for you to go. With only 3 adults in your home, tankless may be more efficient in your case. The folks that have tankless can tell you what their oil/propane/electric consumption is in their situation. This thread is making me wonder if that was the way for us to go! I do know we are spending less each month in the summer for hot water since we switched to an electric hot water heater, but we have cheap (relatively) electric rates.

Cheers!

 

[vacationhopeful]

I have natural gas now and am thinking about going to electric. That makes sense in my case since I have a 10K PV system on my roof.