Happy New Year all! My holiday break featured an unscheduled (but imminent) water heater replacement. Since I was facing this for some time I had already done some research. You might recall my query a few months back about heat pump water heaters. I couldn't make any headway on that one. (Looks like those units went the way of the proverbial buggy whip!) Some here suggested looking into tankless water heaters with the caveat that the electric versions are not really worthwhile, and that was my conclusion as well. I'm rural and don't presently have propane or LP so I would be faced with a major conversion cost to go to gas.
An electric tankless unit that would replace a 40-gal. tank unit (marginal in my opinion) was available for about $600, and we could possibly cut that in half with the current tax credit. (I found that the gas-fired tankless units quailfied but I couldn't determine that definitely for the electric versions.) So the replacement cost might have been attractive at face value, but then I learned that I would also need to upgrade the service to the unit to 120 amps! (3 x 40-amp circuit) I figured that would add at least another $200 - 250 to the job, but the disqualifier is that I don't have that much capacity remaining in my 200-amp entrance. And then, the tankless energy savings were something like only $40 per year at the national average of (IIRC) 8.6 cents/kW-hr. So the payback at those rates probably exceeded the life expectancy of the unit. In my case, I only pay about 6.8 cents, so that extended my payback even further.
Long story short, we went with a replacement "Energy Smart" tank unit. The installed cost was about $650 (80-gal. unit, I installed it myself) that included some additional plumbing upgrades. The annual operating cost difference for the 80-gal. unit vs. the 50 (smallest I would consider) was only about $13 at our rate so the wife and I agreed on the higher-capacity unit. We both ran out of hot water on many occasions over the years and thought the greater "insulation" from that was worth the additional $100 up front and $13 per year! We might even improve on that difference with additional insulation around the tank - I left enough room for a 3" blanket if I can find one.
So how many of you make these estimates? How do your utility rates influence your decisions? Frankly, at 6.8 cents/kW-hr it's very difficult to justify a conversion to gas for any appliance, or an "upgrade" to a newer technology.
Anyone else experience this first-hand?
Tks and BRgds...!
An electric tankless unit that would replace a 40-gal. tank unit (marginal in my opinion) was available for about $600, and we could possibly cut that in half with the current tax credit. (I found that the gas-fired tankless units quailfied but I couldn't determine that definitely for the electric versions.) So the replacement cost might have been attractive at face value, but then I learned that I would also need to upgrade the service to the unit to 120 amps! (3 x 40-amp circuit) I figured that would add at least another $200 - 250 to the job, but the disqualifier is that I don't have that much capacity remaining in my 200-amp entrance. And then, the tankless energy savings were something like only $40 per year at the national average of (IIRC) 8.6 cents/kW-hr. So the payback at those rates probably exceeded the life expectancy of the unit. In my case, I only pay about 6.8 cents, so that extended my payback even further.
Long story short, we went with a replacement "Energy Smart" tank unit. The installed cost was about $650 (80-gal. unit, I installed it myself) that included some additional plumbing upgrades. The annual operating cost difference for the 80-gal. unit vs. the 50 (smallest I would consider) was only about $13 at our rate so the wife and I agreed on the higher-capacity unit. We both ran out of hot water on many occasions over the years and thought the greater "insulation" from that was worth the additional $100 up front and $13 per year! We might even improve on that difference with additional insulation around the tank - I left enough room for a 3" blanket if I can find one.
So how many of you make these estimates? How do your utility rates influence your decisions? Frankly, at 6.8 cents/kW-hr it's very difficult to justify a conversion to gas for any appliance, or an "upgrade" to a newer technology.
Anyone else experience this first-hand?
Tks and BRgds...!
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