On 30-Mar-2004, Islander wrote:

There is another reason to use a tankless heater. If you have a long
run from your whole-house water heater, you will use up the capacity of
the pipe run before you get hot water at the tap. That amount of water
is wasted as well as the energy needed to heat it. If you don't have
the space, a tankless heater will provide instant hot water. If you
have the space a small conventional tank will do just as well.

Yes, I agree with all of that. I my case, I could locate the tank in the crawl
space directly under the two bathrooms that it serves.

One other consideration on tankless heaters: Since they have to fully heat the
cold water as it is flowing, they have to use much more power while they are on
than a conventional tank heater which has a reservoir of hot water. My heater
draws about 18 amps at 240 volts. A tankless water heater may draw 50 amps or
more at 240 volts. That means that you have to run a much heavier wire, and,
unless you have a high capacity service panel, it may use up a signifcant
portion of your total power capacity.