On Jan 31, 10:25*am, "Attila Iskander"
wrote:
"Existential Angst" wrote in message
...
http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/pag.../Longevity/tan...
Now, this guy sells anodes'n'**** for tanks, but I found his take
level-headed.
The raw thermodynamics of tankless -- esp. gas tankless -- puts one big
strike against tankless from the gitgo.
Funny how tankless heaters have been around for more than 50 years in Europe
and are the primary mode of providing hot water to households
* * One has to wonder why something that has had 50+ years of daily usage in
a large parts of the world would allegedly be so far back technically as the
author claims.
A lot of the rest of the world has a lot of things going on in the
economy that are not governed by free market economics, but instead
by govt mandates, regulations, subsidies, etc. For one thing, the
cost
of energy is typically substantially higher in many places than
it is here. People in those other parts of the world could just as
easily point to the huge market for water heaters in the USA and
how little of it is tankless as evidence that tank type is superior.
Most of what is pointed out in that link is true. Particularly that
the
total cost of installing a tankless, particularly if it's a retrofit,
skew
the economics so that it's unlikely you'll ever recover the higher
initial cost here in the USA, where nat gas is still relatively modest
cost.
There are TWO reasons why the tankless are still expensive to buy and
install:
1) * *They are relatively new and unknown here, with not much demand for
them yet
2) * *They are going against what has been the norm during the 50+ years.
Change is slow
I should also mention that there is resistance from the plumbing
establishment, who are being challenged in their "control" zones.
Of course the fact that in a lot of retrofit cases you have to
increase
the line size all the way back to the gas meter, maybe replace the
gas meter too, put in new venting, etc has nothing to do with it,
right?
Or the fact that if the power goes out, with a tank type, you still
have
hot water for 2 days?