Hot Water on Demand: My Energy Efficient Choice for Hot Water

In the cold winter months in 2009, the night before I became a single mother and military ex-wife, my water heater exploded. What was a slow drip from the release pipe on the top of the water heater became a flood of shooting hot water. Once I turned the water off to the water heater, I called my father. It was late at night, in my cold unfinished basement, with the plumbing half done on the bathroom in the basement that was being erected next to the unstoppable flow of water, my babies asleep in their warm beds, my former spouse passed out in intoxication, and me, in the basement with a series of buckets trying to keep the water in one area near the drain. I never realized how much water the tank of a water heater holds! A few hour later she (I say she because only women can explode for that long) was done flowing and the next morning I was up, with children in tow at Menards. Armed with consumer reports and a low interest credit card, I went about my search for unlimited hot and tankless water.

Being a mother and running a household, one thing is for certain. There is a continual need for hot water. Dishes/dishwasher, laundry, baths, showers, cleaning up spills, stains, and the like…..I knew that this was my chance to “upgrade.” Regular tank hot water heaters have a life of give or take, 10 years. They also run for $300-700 dollars depending on size, make, model, capacity, etc. Most of them have the striking yellow “energy saver” tag. They in some cases are not only tax credit worthy, but homes that are purchased under certain warranty and loan warranty can have it replaced for free if it dies with in the first year and as long as they stay in the home for the next 5-10 years. In my case, none of these applied, regardless of purchase.

One of the other striking things I had on my mind regarding this purchase was the bathroom being erected in the basement. In order to maximize the size of the small bathroom, going tankless would be the best of all worlds. It would fit between the framing of the wall, just below the main floor bathroom, to the left of the basement bathroom, just to the right of the laundry room, and a few feet from where the kitchen was. The benefit: the hot water did not have to travel far to reach its location. Selecting a tankless left the optimal room for the bathroom, and for the laundry room had finishing the basement been in the plans. I was being proactive to the cause and the investment, not reacting to it.

So, at Menards in water heater land, checking prices first and then checking their ratings, I found that tankless water heaters with lower BTU and other generic style models, cost the same as the high end tank style hot water heaters. So I had to decide if this investment was worth it.

I decided on a bosch model 175000BTU energy efficient tankless hot water heater. It cost $1,000. I only lived in the house for 1 year after the purchase but I loved that decision. I could run the dishwasher, the washing machine on hot, and be the third to shower and everyone and thing had hot water. It was awesome. My water bills in 2009 (we pay quarterly) went from about $100 in April, to $86 in July to $75 in October. As for energy usage, because I was on the budget plan for energy bills, I did not really see a difference.

My advice: if you have a family and you NEED to replace your hot water heater- go tankless, but set the heat settings lower than the recommended 120 degrees, especially if the travel distance to the water usage point is short. Not only is tankless quick, on demand, easy, and takes up minimal space, it also was pretty easy to install. Be aware, in some cases you will also need the installation kit, which runs about $200-300, but in my case i did not.

So when all was said and done, it was one of the features that helped the resale of my house in a depressed market- the other feature that helped, well, was the addition of the second bathroom next to it.


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