Greening Your Home - Electric Tankless Waterheater?

Hi, I found this board today and think it's great!

I removed all the gas lines from our home a decade ago. Can a total electric home have a tankless water heater? Ours is at that age where it will need replacing soon and I would love to have the extra space in my laundry room. I will get that extra space when the old electric hot water heater is removed, right?

Thanks!

Absolutely!

An electric tankless water heater is an excellent way to green your home. It will save alot of money because the electricity will only come on when it is needed.

I really like the NoAds.com its one of the most affordable ones and its better than any others I have seen. The N-120 model should do the trick for a typical home, unless you are in a very cold climate and multiple people are showering at the same time. If thats the case you can run two of them parallel to assure maximum gpm.

I once thought that the tankless water-heaters only came in a gas model. I hate gas, when my children came along my husband wouldn't take the lines out so I did! I am glad to hear they come in electric models. We will install our final remodeling phase next year and I'll be sure to include one. We have saved a ton of money on electricity just by replacing ceiling tiles, windows and large appliances.

Thank you!

Bugtussell

You may want to read some of the other threads on tankless heaters. I agree, they are a great idea, but they are sooo expensive and require new wiring and possibly even a main panel upgrade.

Some people like them after they get used to the quirks, others have spent years trying to get them right, only to wind up ripping them out and going back to a conventional.

Installation seems to be the key, like many other things.

Another thing to consider is Solar Thermal, I've read stories of some who completely shut of their electric hot water heater and survive on Solar heated water. Solar thermal collectors have come a long ways since the 80's, something worth looking into.
Philip

Bugtussell

You may want to read some of the other threads on tankless heaters. I agree, they are a great idea, but they are sooo expensive and require new wiring and possibly even a main panel upgrade.

Some people like them after they get used to the quirks, others have spent years trying to get them right, only to wind up ripping them out and going back to a conventional.

Installation seems to be the key, like many other things.


Thanks for pointing that out. I'll read the other threads. I'm hoping that using a qualified installer would eliminate most of the worries but then our house is far from "standard built" so I'm guessing we may need to really study this idea first.

Another thing to consider is Solar Thermal, I've read stories of some who completely shut of their electric hot water heater and survive on Solar heated water. Solar thermal collectors have come a long ways since the 80's, something worth looking into.
Philip

Thanks for the idea. This home once has some sort of steam heater system for the interior heat - water was heated by the fireplace and went through the entire house. I think it was a great idea for its time but in the south, we have so much humidity that the house was too damp. The addition of an air conditioning system helped but not enough. Now we just have an air handler (still have the fireplace) which is not enough sometimes. The entire house is concrete except the walls that make up the hallway and the roof/ceilings of course. It is built into the side of a hill so only the front has windows. Because of the moisture problems, I'm wondering if solar water heating would add to the problems? I'm about to learn more about geo-thermal...not sure but I think that system heats both the air and the water. Again though, I wonder about the humidity and moisture. My husband wanted to destroy it years ago and I'm starting to wish I hadn't talked him out of it. It has great potential, but for someone with a lot of money...not us right now!

I recently replaced two water heaters in my house. One I replaced with a tankless but had severe limitations on size because of existing wiring constraints. :( The other one I replaced by putting in a new heater but used an AirTap heat pump as the heat source. I am much happier with the heat pump.:)

Using a tankless waterheater and a heat pump, hmm? That seems like a great way to save energy, I'll have to look into it.

I already posted this response to another thread, but it seems to fit this thread so well I hope no one minds if I put it here too.

I went tankless back in January 2008, and I'm so happy with the system that I added a page to my "projects" website that shows pictures of the installation and has performance observations that I have made since installing it. Note that this is not spam. I have no financial interest in the brand that I installed and I got it from eBay. I'm just that happy with the device.
The url is http://davetech23.tripod.com if you want to visit. Also has articles on my backyard foundry. Next I plan to build a solar powered water preheating system so the tankless will hardly have to do any work.
Dave

I recently replaced two water heaters in my house. One I replaced with a tankless but had severe limitations on size because of existing wiring constraints. :( The other one I replaced by putting in a new heater but used an AirTap heat pump as the heat source. I am much happier with the heat pump.:)


How well has that AirTap unit been working for you?

I've got a full basement that stays down in the 48 to 60 degree* range all winter and I'm wondering if that would effect the efficiency much.?.

*The basement floor only a few feet above the water table,
so we got the geothermal effect keeping the concrete floor (and 8"walls) extremely stable. It takes months to see even a couple of degree change.

Cheers,
Rich

I'd like to weigh in on this issue. I purchased a home a couple of years ago with a rusted out gas water heater. I bought a Titan tankless heater on ebay for a couple of hundred dollars. It's electric instead of the gas that most people in my area use. I live in Salt Lake City and Natural Gas is really cheap here. I was told over and over again that I was an idiot for going electric.
The install was easy. I put it in my crawlspace, so I have no space issues at all. I had to sweat 2 joints and install a new breaker. My electricity bill has gone up a few dollars a month, and my natural gas bill went from 25 dollars a month in july to three. I had gas heating my water and running my barbrcue. I am free of pilot lights and don't use any gas during the summer months. I can take 5 hour showers if I want and my hot water never runs out.
The Titan heater has worked great. It's about the size of a dictionary and makes the water piping hot. What a great investment. Check out ebay... There's a bunch out there for not a lot of money.

The nice thing about the Air Tap HWHP is the 120VAC plug.
Some DIY plumbing and then plug-n-play.. :)

I see that Hallowell is coming out with an Add-on DIY model too (coming soon).
http://www.gotohallowell.com/waterheater.html

Question. My husband and I installed a new heat pump when our air conditioning system went out. Can this same heat pump be used to heat water and eliminate our tank system? And if so, what do you do when the temperature drops to low for the heat pump to kick in?

Question. My husband and I installed a new heat pump when our air conditioning system went out. Can this same heat pump be used to heat water and eliminate our tank system? And if so, what do you do when the temperature drops to low for the heat pump to kick in?

You can ask your Heat pump installer if it's possible to install a desuperheater on your heat pump system.

Right now, your outdoor coil is blowing off a lot of warm air.
With a desuperheater converting that heat into hot water,
you get 'free' hot water all summer (while using the AC).

But in the winter time, you would need to use another source of heat for your hot water..

That's why you might want to look into a hot water heat pump. The AirTap HPHW type (see above) might be the best
way to go, for saving on electric bills, All year round..
It's likely to cost a lot less than a desuperheater add-on.
----

If the power cost isn't a big concern, there are On-Demand electric hot water heaters can be installed.
They don't use any power, until you turn on the tap.
But, that's when they run up your bill.. :(