Hot Water Heater Specs.

Ahh, I just realized I never finished that post on my heater (thanks Marc for reminding me), that girlfriend knows how to distract me...

A few years ago, my uncle, who runs a hardware store in DE, bought the only tankless hot water heater on the market. He has a big house, but a really small basement, so by taking out his tank he gained more space for his workshop. He loved it, b/c it saved him about $20 a month as he had 4 family members living in his house with him. Also, b/c it never stored water, when the family would go on vacation, he never had to turn it down so it wouldn't heat un-needed water for the week. So when I moved into my new house, I remembered what the home inspector said "Your hot water heater is over 14 years old, they typically last 10-12, so get a new one ASAP." So that's what I did, but I spent a few months researching the heaters. My bro sent me this cool link soon after moving in: http://www.mme.state.va.us/de/hbchap6.html It breaks down all the different hot water heaters you can buy. On the chart it states that On-demand Gas is 70%, mine is actually 80% (fyi, if you buy a water heater that's 80% or higher in efficiency, then you get a $300 tax write off) My GPM (gallons per minute) of hot water can actually vary. It ends up that during winter you flick a switch (kind of like flipping the nitrious switch on Joey T's doped out Civic) so that the cold water it's taking in gets hot enough, but when you do that, you burn way more gas. The number's get complicated, but between the normal setting and the turbo get 1.1-3.7gpm of 140 degree water. The big key though is the temperature of the water coming into the house. Technically my Bosch Aquastar 125B can support 2 hot water sources turned on at the same time (a hot shower and washing machine). It's meant for a smaller house, so if you have a family, or like to wash dishes, laundry and take a hot shower at the same time, you may have some trouble. Retail cost on this puppy is under $600, but I'll be honest, it cost me just under $1K to buy it and have it installed by a professional. I think it's worth it, as it goes with my green lifestyle, plus if I ever have many people live here, then person after person can take an uber hot shower without any tank ever running out of water. Oh yes, also the life of tankless water heaters are about 20 years, so they will easily outlast a normal tank heater.

There is one drawback, though it's not big....When taking my first shower on it, I knew that at a certain low flow rate, the heater would shut off, so once I rinsed off all the soap off my body, I started backing down the pressure (turning the hot water nob closer to off) and soon enough the water was F'ing cold. It's a little bit of a pain if people come to visit and need to take a shower, as I'll have to tell them to keep the pressure up, but it's not a bad drawback as I have a super low flow water head on the shower. I believe the lowest flow rate setting which allows the hot water heater to kick on is 0.5 gpm. Not too high at all.

One interesting thing I've noticed in the past week since I got the heater, was that my basement is now about 10 degrees cooler. It used to be balmy down there, even when my house was in the 50's, it would easily be in the 70's down there. It really blows my mind how inefficient that old hot water heater opperated as it threw off a lot of wasteful heat.

Oh, here's another cool link my bro sent me about energy use in other appliances:http://www.mme.state.va.us/de/hbchap7.html
And if anyone is interested in buying these, they are now available at most hardware stores. Bosch is now one of the big players with their Aquastar brand, but there are 2-3 other brands that make them too.