H2O heater question

[mjarrels]

My 60 gal. 9000 watt electric water heater (9 years old) is on its last leg... I must use the panel breaker to turn on/off as the thing gets scalding hot. I know there are tankless gas units but I do not have access to gas. My question is are there 220 volt tankless electric units that can be used for two baths, kitchen, laundry hot water in one single unit?

mark

 

[Highbeam]

What little reading I've done about the tankless heaters suggest that the electric resistance heaters are not able to produce hot water fast enough to keep up with demand in a residence. You would need so much electricity that the lights in Vegas would dim. I am sure you could find an electric one but pay attention to the required power.

The gas units are pretty common but still much more expensive than a traditional water heater. I am on natural gas here at home and would switch to tankless in a heartbeat if my tank style heater died. It is just not economical to replace functional appliances with more efficient versions until they die.

 

[InlineDieselFan]

we were originally going with an all electic house then we added propane. We looked at the electric versions heavily (2 years ago, so some things may have changed). As highbeam said they cannot keep up with high flows of water. read all of the information closely and ask lots of questions.

another factor is the temperature of the incoming water and how much and how fast it can heat that water.

I kick myself in the rear everytime I turn on the hot water in the shop to wash up, I am heating 50 gallons of water continuosly, and it just makes me mad.

In the house we went with a traditioanl propane water heater and a circulating pump, otherwise do to the long runs we would have needed two instant hot heaters (one at each end ofthe house) and would have been on the edge of being able to get the water up to 110-115 degrees.

steve

 

[BillyP]

My 60 gal. 9000 watt electric water heater (9 years old) is on its last leg... I must use the panel breaker to turn on/off as the thing gets scalding hot. I know there are tankless gas units but I do not have access to gas. My question is are there 220 volt tankless electric units that can be used for two baths, kitchen, laundry hot water in one single unit?

mark

Why not spend about 15 or 20 bucks and change out the thermostat

 

[InlineDieselFan]

Why not spend about 15 or 20 bucks and change out the thermostat

yeah, the rest of us missed the boat there!!!

That would be the cheap and easy fix.

 

[browns40]

Heck, while she's down you may as well change the anode in it , drain & flush it, and chech the condition of your heating element...

9 years isn't much on a HWH if any PM gets done!

 

[Piedmont3]

I think the $20 OR $30 thermostat may be the best way to go for now.
BUT...
I have a whole house electric tankless water heater. It works great for our small family of 2 adults and 1 teenage daughter.
We have a geothermal heat and air unit that makes hot water as a by product of its process. That warm(90-95 degrees F) water is stored in a 40 gallon tank, that feeds the tankless hot water heater. The tankless hot water heater then only has to raise the temperature about 10-15 degrees to make it hot enough for showers and baths and laundry.
The only bad part of the deal we have experienced in the 2.5 years we have had it is, if noone has used any hot water in a while (2 or 3 hours) it may take a while(10 or 20 seconds) to get the hot water to show up at the faucets that are a long way from the tankless heater. Only because you have to run the cold water out of the line. It and the geothermal unit have made our electric bill much less(-35% -40%) in this house than in our last house which was smaller by about 30%.
We have an "Envirotech " Water heater. Model ESI 2000 4.12

 

[Piedmont3]

The other thing I forgot to mention is the wire. The electrical wire that feeds electricity to that heater is multi stranded 2 gauge wire. In existing construction it could/will be very hard to pull to where you need it to feed the heater. It was easier for us because ours was put in during original construction.

 

[dmccarty]

Mark,

When we built the house our plan was to use Solar water heaters to provide hot water as well as radiant heating. We wanted to use a tankless hot water heater to boost the domestic hot water if the Solar was not heating the water enough.

When we looked at the total cost of the solar panels to provide the radiant heating it just did not make money sense for us to instlall. I came to the same conclusion with just trying to heat water with solar. Since the water out of the well was going to be "low" the ondemand electric water heater was an iffy proposition. On demand heaters are rated to heat so many GPMs by so many degrees. So you have to lower the GPMs you use or boost the temperature of the water supply. I was not sure how many GPMs we would use though I'm sure our showers and washers don't use much. BUT I did not want to be wrong and not have hot water either.

So I went with good 80 gallon water heater. It cost the same as the cheaper/smaller water heaters to run but was more expensive up front. I think the label on the tank and my guestimate on the cost works out to be $30ish a month.

Non electric on demand water heaters works much better then electric. They can heat more water, GPM, and to higher temperatures.

The Feds now have a tax rebate on solar water heat. I can't remember what it is though. NC has one as well. When we have some cash I'm going to study the solar water heating as an option again since my gut feel is with the two tax breaks it might make money sense at this point. And the water heater is a large part of our electric bill. We heat with primarily with wood so the summer is what drives up our power bill. If the AC is not on our power bill is $90-100 a month. So $30ish for the hot water is third of our power bill. It would be nice to cut that out of the budget but that also tells me how much I should pay for the solar water heater over 10-15 years.

Anyway, my long winded suggestion would be to check out the solar water heating option, including state and federal tax incentives, and see if that would be an option along with the ondemand water heater.

Later,
Dan

 

[Doc_Bob]

Mark,

The Feds now have a tax rebate on solar water heat. I can't remember what it is though. NC has one as well. When we have some cash I'm going to study the solar water heating as an option again since my gut feel is with the two tax breaks it might make money sense at this point. It would be nice to cut that out of the budget but that also tells me how much I should pay for the solar water heater over 10-15 years.

FEDS 2K in tax credit (30% of cost of project)
State of WI up to 30% and based upon # sq ft of collector.

State rebate plus FED tax credit = good deal. That is why I installed a SDHW.
Also, I always wanted to have one.
Bob