$250/yr for water? Crazy. I spend almost that much in 2 months
You need a tankless bud, and mine is PROPANE!!! a little more than $20 a month, and we are a family of four...
We have High Sierra Shower heads in all 4 bathrooms... I swear by these, they are rated at 1.5gpm but feel like 3gpm, tons of pressure, kind of loud but you get used to it... I tested them before and they flow around 1.38gpm and feel like over double that... So you can cut your hot water bill almost in half by just swapping heads, if you have a basic low volume head it is most likely 2.5 this is over a gpm less than that...
Plus using a gas tankless hot water heater is a good idea, think about it... You keep 40 gallons {probably much more than that since 40 is about the smallest a 1 family home will get away with} of water hot, 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. You need to keep that hot water at least 140 degrees because as you remove hot water from the tank new cold {45-55 degree} water is introduced, so if you stored it at 130 {the lowest you safely store warm water or you will be getting legionella} your recovery is going to be very low, which means short showers, and an unhappy wife... So now, we dont take 140 degree showers, most people are around 110, so you are paying to heat water, just to cool it off at the point of use... VERY WASTEFUL....
So now with a tankless water heater, you don't store any water at all, you turn on the faucet or shower and the unit senses water flow and starts its high eff. burner, instantly heats the water until the flow stops {ie when you shut the faucet}, so all day when you are at work you spend 0 dollars on hot water....
Next is the water temp, since you don't have to over heat the water, you can set it to 110 degrees and when you take a shower just turn the shower valve to full hot, so now no more scald hazard, no more fluctuating temps {adjusting the water temps as you get to the end of your shower like with a tank}... Plus it takes A LOT more energy to heat water to 140 degrees than it takes to heat it to 110!!!
Another plus is hot water tanks are lasting around 7 years, the rinnai tankless units are good for 25!!! they have been using them in Europe since the 70s.. I have had them in my homes for over a decade and no issues, I service and install them, and have no complaints... I sell around 65 a year so I think I would know if they were any trouble... any issues people have are either user error or a bad install...
The down fall about the units is, initial cost I get $2150 for non condensing units and $2500 for condensing high eff units... But the bright side is, when you need to replace the unit it takes 20 minutes, you take out four screws, unhook 3 unions and drop it off the wall, push the new one onto the wall, put the screws back, hook the unions back up and push the exhaust onto the top of it!!! In other words, you buy your new water heater online and install it in a half hour, vs a tank needs to be drained, unsoldered, re soldered, sheet metal exhausted, ect...
Next down fall is time, it takes an average of 2.3 seconds longer to get hot water to the pint of use than a tank...
next is cold sandwich effect, say you turn the water on and get hot water, then turn it off and then back on you will have about 4 oz of cold water in the lines that passed between cycles... You get used to not doing this, just leave the faucet on a little if you are going to be back and forth to the sink...
But anyway, I don't even remember how I got on this topic, you guys should know better than to get me started talking about work, guns, or motorcycles...
