How to save a few buck$$$

[Scott Pollak]

I know this is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off topic, but hey, that's what this forum is for, right?

Some of you may recall when I was asking about tankless water heaters during the holidays. I had mine installed on Jan. 2 (so I could take advantage of the $1500 tax credit on next year's return) and wanted to share some interesting stats with you.

Also, last year we switched over most of the incandescent bulbs in our house to CFL (compact flourescent lights) and we also had a programmable thermostat installed.

Now keep in mind two things: I have two teenagers (16 & 18) that LOVE to take obscenely long hot showers.

Second thing: here in Atlanta it's been insanely scorching in June. WAY above normal. Our highs have been in the mid 90's most of the past month. I actually had to go buy a small portable room a/c to put in my studio/office since it never gets very cool in here.

Anyway, interestingly, I've seen a pretty sizeable drop in my energy bills. I can only assume it's due to the thermostat, the CFLs and the tankless heater. Here's a quick comparo:

Electric bill:
June '09: 214.00
June '08: 283.00
June '07: 295.00

Gas bill:
June '09: 48.00
June '08: 66.00
June '07: 62.00

Anyway, thought I'd share that in case anyone is looking for some pretty simple and - for the most part inexpensive (with the exception of the tankless heater) ways to cut energy costs.

[Steve Royal]

Hey, I'm going to do a non-threadjack on an off topic topic!

Until recently, we had a very old electric hot water tank system that plugged into a general power outlet.
Very expensive to run ($140 per month).
Naturally, we didn't like paying out that sort of money, so we tried a little experiment.....
By switching the heater off at noon and leaving it off until the next morning, our power bill dropped to $40 a month....and we still had pretty hot water the whole time.

That's all gone now-we just replaced it with an instantaneous gas water heater (tankless).

It'll be interesting to see how much our next electricity bill is, and how long our gas tanks last.

As for home heating, we have a wood heater. It keeps most of the house at about 25degC even when it's 2degC outside.
Firewood isn't too expensive ($150/tonne), but there plenty of old redgum railway sleepers around here.
It's a bit of a job chopping them up (chainsaws go blunt after 1 or 2 cuts), but they make brilliant firewood!

[bransom]

My gas water heater has sprung a small leak so I guess it's time to look at replacements. I had no idea that tankless water heaters even existed for your average family-sized home. I can certainly imagine the benefits but wonder what you guys might consider to be the drawbacks?

BTW: I've got three kids that take long showers, too. And my wife isn't exactly Ms. Conservation, either.

[Scott Pollak]

Bob,

You didn't realize they existed for homes?! Wow, you've missed the bombardment of Rinnai commercials for the past 2-3 years? BTW, these things are pretty commonplace in Europe and have been for decades.

Anyway, from my experience and perspective, here are the pros and cons of tankless H2O heaters:

Pros:
- Endless hot water, you never run out (with our old tank-style heater, one bathtub full and you had to wait an hour or so for any more hot water to be available!)
- reduced energy costs, only heats the water when you're using it
- MUCH smaller unit. Mine is actually an exterior unit, mounted on my outside wall of my house and is about 3' tall by about 2' wide and maybe 6" deep. The area in my garage where my water heater used to be is wide open storage space now
- enhance resale value on your house
- energy tax credit
- programmable, digital temp gauge to set your hot water temp at whatever you want it to be. Especially handy if you have small children and DON'T want the water temp to be scalding hot.

Cons:
- Initially expensive to purchase and have installed, and don't even think of installing it yourself unless you're a master plumber. My unit cost me $2500 installed. But I went with the best of the lot, the Rinnai, and got a unit with a high gpm (gallons per minute) flow to handle multiple things going at once, like a shower and the dishwasher
- The hot water isn't instantaneous. You have to wait a minute or two after you turn it on before you get the hot water. They do make small units that can be additionally used in areas like at the kitchen sink, and so on, but I can't see spending that kind of money.

I'm thrilled with mine and will never own another tank water heater again.