Rethink Your Life!
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The Work of Art and The Art of Work
Kiko Denzer on Art



[Cob] Tankless Waterheater

dan Burbank dan at crookedbear.com
Thu Oct 23 21:41:02 CDT 2008



We are in town and have a Rinnai NG tank-less water heater. It is hard to
say how much it saved us. We added a 16 X 20 kitchen, took our house apart
and rebuilt it, we have a 1950 rambler that was a whopping 820 square ft.
and added another 320ft.
Anyway we dumped the tank water heater and
added a gas fireplace to keep the main living area warm during the
evening. We re wrapped house, resided, new sheet rock insulation windows
everything. After 2 years of rebuilding our gas bill was the same, even
though the price went up and we added. So it is hard to say since we
improved the living space physically so much. Have had no problems with
the heater in fact love it. The only draw back, if you run hot water and
then stop, takes a few moments for the heater to kick on so you can get a
cold water sandwich. A tank keeps the pipes warm so it seamed that the
"shock" of the cold was lessened but  with a tank-less
system, it always happens. Sometimes it is not as drastic as others,
summer time during day when using it a lot, it will only be cool. But you
will always get that 2 or 3 seconds of cold water between hot if the line
is already primed. Easy to live with it. Oh, one other thing, you need to
restrain yourself if you like hot showers. I know, it is against
everything sustainable but the occasional long hot shower does not deprive
the next guy in line.

As for how hot, we had the gas at the
house already so it was a no brainier for us. It will heat to 140 if you
need it. We picked the Rinnai because it had the highest flow/heating
ratio. Hope that helps.

dan