I snagged
one of these from Vine last night. I fear it was a mistake. I didn't see where it said that it required 150 amps dedicated. 150 AMPS! Holy ish. I'm going to brown out the whole freaking neighborhood every time that I take a shower. Okay, I know that's not true - it should only draw as much current as is required to heat the water flowing through it. So, if my flow rate is low, it shouldn't need any more than a smaller unit...but I don't know if I still need to install four 40-amp lines to it per the installation instructions. That's going to cost some coin.
Why did you post this, are you baiting me into a 5400 word post?
Don't buy that...
Heres the thing...
When I used to {thats funny to say for some reason} get customers asking me how they can save money on energy, the first thing I looked at was the envelope, insulation, doors, windows, intake and exhaust air for clothes dryers, kitchen hoods, bathroom vents, ect... Thats first, seal the envelope, stop outside temperature from impinging your desired internal climate.
NEXT WOULD BE DHW {domestic hot water}, this is one of the easiest places to save money, BUT when done wrong it can cost you money, and fast...
First thing to do is shower heads,
http://www.amazon.com/High-Sierra-Efficiency-Shower-Polished/dp/B001W2CEYA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419177241&sr=8-1&keywords=high+sierra+showerhead
Them are awesome, they make wands and all kinds of stuff, great product, and it will save you money, to the tune of 50% the energy you use when showering which is 80% of your DHW usage...
Next is time, a shower timer for the kids will go a long way, a timer in the shower helps me too, I forget how long I am in there sometimes, having a timer that is set to beep at 6 minutes is helpful...
OK, so thats the cheap stuff, now onto the appliance and the fuel...
OK, there are free ways to heat hot water such as solar, but as the old saying goes, "if its free its for me", no wait, not that one "never look a gift horse in the mouth", nope that one is wrong too, "if its too good to be true, its probably not", Ummmm getting closer, "nothing is for nothing", yeah thats the one.. Here is the issue with solar water heaters, they are expensive, and they don't last long enough to return your investment, in most cases they cost you more to buy and replace in the time they last than if you just had a $400 40 gallon water tank.... So that is a waste...
So what do we use to heat hot water, there are a lot of options, first you need to look at your fuel, if you only have electric, I would install this
http://www.americanwaterheater.com/products/productDetails.aspx?ID=1210 rebates through your electric company are easily redeemed, here that tank costs me $905 and the rebate is $750...
Gas I would install this
http://www.amazon.com/Rinnai-RL94iN-Natural-Tankless-Gallons/dp/B0058DQLPW/ref=sr_1_3?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1419177802&sr=1-3&keywords=rinnai rebates here are around $300 then feds may have some money for it next year too...
But since you are looking into electric then I would go for the hybrid tank... ONLY if you current equipment is at the end of its life.... Replacing good equipment makes it financially less appealing because you are not getting your use out of the first unit, if you paid $800 for your existing heater, and it has 5 years of life left you just wasted half its costs...
Now if you don't have the room for a tank, then you may need something different, but most places have room and it isn't a problem...
heres the issue, a single guy with a small water tank will spend about $250 a year heating hot water, them tanks and hot water appliances in general last 5-10 years, so if you buy a $600 device that costs you $400 to install and it saves you 50% of your energy costs {WHICH IS IMPOSSIBLE, YOU WILL SAVE 5% max, lol}, it still doesn't make much sense...
On demand is good, I like it, but it requires much more energy for the entire use cycle, where non on demand storage type systems require much less energy for sporadic periods of time throughout the day. For example a rinnair on demand water heater uses up to 199K BTU's where a 40ga water tank uses 33K BTU's... So it ends up almost evening out when use is frequent, with steady use it can cost you more in some cases...
The first thing to look at it what DHW costs you right now and what your useage is, then make a decision based on what you will save and how long the equipment will last you, also try to keep what it will cost you to keep said equipment running in mind...
