Help with On Demand Water Heaters and Minisplit heater-coolers
 

My wife and I are completing a home on the Gulf of California in Mexico. We're
purchasing and installing appliances etc and I have a question of water
heaters and cooling systems.



The house has three baths and will be on electricity and LP. For water
heating it has been recommended we go with an on-demand unit. These are the
small wall units that really don't have a tank. I'm not sure how they work
but I assume the water line flows through them in some sort of coil or other
high surface area system and when in use, the gas heats the coils. As a
result, you're not constantly heating a large tank of water. Supposedly, if
sized correctly you get as much hot water as you want and it burns 35% less
gas. It sounds good, but I'd like to know if anyone has used them. Are
there any issues or models I should be aware of?



As for cooling, again someone suggested a minisplit which is essentially a
heat pump for a single room. Right now the house has spaces built into each
room in the house for A/C units. I have a minisplit in one room of my house
in Tucson and I'm a little underwhelmed. I only use it for cooling during
the monsoons in July and August but it seems to be high maintenance and
pretty energy inefficient. The roof to the Mexican house is sloped and
tiled so I'm not even sure if I can install a minisplit. Any suggestions or
alternatives?



Thanks in advance.



p
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