hot water on Demand

[upthesaukee]

Originally Posted by ishoot308

I went with an on demand system for one reason, convenience. If your thinking about an on demand system for savings, I would think twice. The energy savings of an on demand system does not justify the upfront cost. You will never make your money back in the energy savings.

For us it was a simple decision. We initially had a small electric hot water tank under our camp. Didn't have room for anything larger. We were constantly running out of hot water and it was extremely inefficient in an outdoors environment. Our plumber recommended the on demand system and he was spot on! It's a small wall mounted unit that we installed inside in our bathroom. We never run out of hot water now, it's efficient, and takes seconds to winterize. It has worked flawlessly for eight years now and we are thrilled with it!

Dan

Our Masonic Lodge had an oil fired hot water heater coupled with a large insulated tank that was installed back in the 70's, which was fine back when fuel oil was as cheap as a bottle of soda. The problem was in the last several years, we were spending a lot of money, $675 - $800+ per summer just keeping the hot water hot. Oil fired furnace was turned off during the summer months.
We opted to go with an on demand propane fired hot water heater. It was just under $2,000. One of our members is a licensed installer, so we had no additional cost other than a small amount of supplies for the hookup.
We only use our kitchen 30-35 times per year, so the increase in propane use was negligible. We do have a commercial dishwasher, but it is a low water use model.
Even with the fluctuation in fuel prices, we felt we did recoup our costs in only a little over 3 years. I do realize our case is quite unique, but depending on use, cost recovery is possible. I also agree that convenience is often the driving force to using on demand system. It was for us as well.
Dave

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