On Apr 8, 7:27�am, "Thomas G. Marshall"
. com wrote:
mike said something like:

On Apr 7, 12:34 pm, "Bill" wrote:

...[snip]...

When tankless salesmen feel the need to trot out BS like that, it
makes me distrust any further "data" they want to push.- Hide quoted
text -

- Show quoted text -

You're the one who thought that standard water heaters run
continuously and that tankless are 80% more efficient than tanks!
SNORT.

Maybe you should listen to someone besides your tankless salesman:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn.../02/08/ST20080...

But if you want spend dollars to chase pennies, more power to ya.

I think Bill was actually agreeing with that article, but that article
pretty much sells me on the tanks. �Anyone here debunk that article at all?

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whats to debunk the savings will take longer than the life of the
heater......

please explain how this is a advantage?

A: DEAR BOB: Tankless water heaters -- it's one of those topics that
seem to polarize people, and I have come to realize that many
consumers don't stop and ask all the right questions before they get
out their credit cards or checkbooks. It is impossible in this limited
space to fully discuss the topic.

I am going to stick to some basic facts I've gathered from my utility
bill, from water-heater manufacturers and from Web sites that sell
additional installation parts. I am adding a pinch of high school
math.

A tankless water heater can cost up to three times what a traditional
storage-tank water heater does. Some tankless water heaters that use
natural gas or propane require expensive stainless-steel exhaust-
venting pipes. The gas lines feeding the heaters need to be larger
than those required by a traditional model. This is not a challenge in
new construction like your vacation home, but it can add considerable
expense in an existing home where the fuel lines might need to be
redone.

Tankless water heaters are more energy-efficient than traditional
storage-tank heaters. A traditional water heater might be 60 percent
efficient, whereas a newer tankless heater often can produce
efficiencies of 80 percent or higher.

I studied my August 2007 utility bill and found that I spent about $36
on hot water using a traditional storage-tank heater for a family of
five sometimes taking two showers a day. My winter hot-water costs
could be expected to be slightly more because the temperature of the
incoming water is colder and must be heated longer to reach the
desired temperature.

We use our water heater every day. You may be using your water heater
for 40 to 50 days a year.

If I were to switch to a tankless heater today, I might save $7 per
month on the efficiency differential and maybe an additional $2 per
month on the amount of energy lost while the heated water sits in the
tank. This means a tankless water heater could save me $108 per year.
Let's be more aggressive and say $125 per year.

If my existing water heater failed today and I replaced it with a
tankless model sized for my family's needs, I would have to spend an
extra $1,550. It would take me nearly 12 1/2 years to break even. If I
included lost interest income on the extra money I spent for the
tankless model, the payback period would be longer.

In your case, the bottom line is far worse. It could take you at least
30 years to break even because the tankless water heater would sit
idle in your vacation home for most of the year. Tankless water
heaters must work hard every day to make economic sense for many
people.