The home improvement industry has been going gaga for tankless water heaters, but are they all their cracked to be? The energy crises has made the need for green products a must, and tankless water heaters are no exception. They do, however, have some minor drawbacks.

Traditional water heaters make tankless water heaters a very good choice, for a number of reasons. The conventional water heater heats and stores energy in a non-efficient large tank. This tank of hot water must be maintained at a certain temperature. That takes a lot of energy, and it uses that energy all day and night long. Tankless water heaters, on the other hand, only use energy when you need it; this results in substantial energy savings.

The few drawbacks are usually expense related. When it comes to buying and installing a tankless water heater, things can get more expensive than tradition tank water heaters. When it comes to buying one of these fancy units, they’re usually more pricey, depending on your situation. To offset this cost the federal government offered a $300 tankless water heater tax credit in 2006 and 2007. This makes tankless water heaters much more attractive, price wise. Unfortunately, we’re still awaiting a tankless water heater tax credit for 2008. The other drawback, is the tankless water heater installation. Installation for gas models can get expensive, as there are certain routing, ducting, and gas line requirements that can raise your costs. Installation of electric models is much more economical, as they don’t require the exhaust. They may require circuit modification, however.

You wondered exactly how tankless water heaters work. Well, they work much like a traditional tank type water heater, without the tank, as the name implies. The difference is the have a very high-powered heating element that heats water much faster. This affords the tankless water heater a big economic advantage, as it isn’t constantly running and wasting energy. Tankless water heaters can reduce your hot water energy bill as much as 50 percent. This is a significant savings, and over time this savings can more than pay for its self, even when you add the higher costs. And if you can get the federal tankless water heater tax rebate, it makes for an even sweeter deal. In fact, many local governments and utilities offer additional rebates. Check with your state government and local utilities, so you can save even more.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 2:46 am and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.