Learning about hot water heaters


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Old 11-05-18, 01:49 PM
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Learning about hot water heaters

Hi everyone thank you for your time reading my thread. I currently am using a propane hot water heater but my wife and I use so little hot water that the water heater just drains the tanks most of the year. We're looking into a tankless heater. I'm not sure how to make the best choice. We live very simply and hope to be totally off grid in a year. So really the only source we use hot water is in the shower. I have read that even a gallon per minute should suffice. But wanting to be off grid would the propane tankless heater be a good idea because how little we use it but I don't want to have to keep refilling the tanks. But electric I'm not sure how to tell how demanding it would be living off solar or wind. So my main questions are. Given the demand what kind of gallon per minute do you think we should need. Is there an effect models availed and the cost of refilling propane vs the increase in electricity (I understand it varies state to state, some places we are looking at say free gas... what could that mean?) thank you for your time. If I was unclear about anything please let me know
 
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Old 11-08-18, 11:53 AM
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Any help or advice would be great
 
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Old 11-08-18, 02:27 PM
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Tankless water heaters are a crap shoot. I originally thought they were a great idea however they are prone to problems due to water quality. I was going to put one in at home until I saw the issues they had.

I don't really have any recommendations on which one to get. I do know they require a large electrical service to run. Based on your other household loads..... a 100A service may not be large enough. A propane model would probably be a good choice but then you are still refilling a vessel.
 
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Old 11-08-18, 02:54 PM
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A friend of mine has a number of apartments and they switched all their units over to tankless. They had numerous breakdowns, mainly control boards. Then it only got worse as they aged there were problems with mineral buildup. So, as they fail they no longer repair them and are going back to traditional tank water heaters.
 
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Old 11-09-18, 08:40 AM
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If you are trying to off the grid you should look at direct solar heating for hot water.
 
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Old 11-13-18, 06:30 PM
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So really the only source we use hot water is in the shower.

Do you not have any dishes to wash, or laundry? I personally like using hot water to wash my hands too.
 
 

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