Can A Tankless Energy Star Water Heater Replace A Gas Heater?
Posted on | November 21, 2009 | 2 Comments
My gas water heater is broken, and I was looking at new ones when I saw the energy efficient ones. Could I replace the gas one with an electric one? The web page mentioned that they can replace the regular electric ones, but nothing was mentioned in the way of a gas heater. Any information you could give would be helpful, thank you.
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2 Responses to “Can A Tankless Energy Star Water Heater Replace A Gas Heater?”
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November 21st, 2009 @ 8:57 pm
it takes a lot of electric current to heat water as it passes through a tankless electric water heater…a large gauge wire will have to be run on its own new breaker,,and thats assuming your breaker panel/service can handle it…..a gas takless water heater would be better,but likely would need a new,larger gas line run from the gas meter to the new tankless heater,,also they are pretty expensive when all is said and done,unless you are doing it yourself….i recommend just replacing the old tank heater with another tank heater,go 10 gallons larger if the old one didnt keep up….tankless only makes sense to me if you have an unusual high demand for hot water that a tank cant meet such as a very large family or a jacuzzi,etc.,,or if you dont have room for a tank heater………..as far as efficiency,,tankless are overrated…i always get “thumbs down” when i say this but i dare anyone to challenge me on the facts….natural gas tank heaters only cost $20-$30 per month to run,depending on usage….lets say $30 for this example….if a tankless saves you 33% of that [which i doubt it saves you even that much],,thats only $10 per month savings for something that costs $2000-$2500 installed [unless you do it all yourself]…a new 40 gal tank heater only costs around $600-$750 installed….true it will need replaced again in 15 years or so whereas a tankless is suppose to last indefinitely,,,but i would bet in 15 years the tankless [by then out of warrenty except for the part that holds the water] will likely need repairs that total the cost of a new tank heater….remember you still have to heat the water that you are using,,the tank heaters dont cost that much more to maintain the hot water in a tank,,the tanks are very well insulated,,and only a little heat is continuously lost through the chimney,,to me not enough to justify the extra cost and complexity of a tankless……..dan
November 21st, 2009 @ 9:30 pm
you can make the change but that would mean adding extra change to your electric circuit box. yes you can get heat from the hot water heater in the form of steam pipes–look into baseboard heating.