I installed a Rinnai RLS75i natural gas unit at the end of July. I have finally received my first gas bill with the whole billing cycle with the tankless.
September 07 Bill: 16 therms billed.
September 08 Bill (Aug 13 to Sept 12): 12 therms billed.
12 / 16 = 0.75
Or, a 25% savings.
I would think as the weather gets colder, the savings would continue.
I do have a major hot water use this year that I did not have last year however that may skew things a little. My wife is 37 weeks in her pregnancy. Sometimes she literally takes 3 baths in a day. It helps her with the pain. Even with that I still was able to get a 25% savings.
As far as the experience goes ... pretty typical of other tankless units I think.
I can run two showers without a hitch. I do not notice any fluctuation in temperature at all. I think the tankless does a really good job of keeping the temperature the same regardless of the load. Temperature consistency has been great. Don't notice cold "sandwiches" during use at all.
There has been a time or two where I have run into low flow situations where the flow was too low for it to kick in.
Getting ready in the morning is great. Back with the tank, usually by the end of the 3rd shower we were out of hot water. That was tough when you have at times 6 people that need showers and baths. We typically would have 2 or three people shower, wait 30 minutes to an hour, followed by the rest. Now, we just shower. The hot water heater no longer runs our life. I would definitely recommend a tankless if you have a large family.
Also, back with a tank, when another person started to shower in the other shower, you would also have to "fight" for your share of the hot water by upping the hot water every minute or two until you were done or ran out of hot water. Now, when someone jumps in the other shower, I do nothing but shower. The temperature of my shower stays the same with the tankless. It is really nice.
Obviously seek a plumber to see if a tankless application is possible.
Edit:
I had a 50 gallon "basic" natural gas tank prior. Nothing fancy, no special venting, etc. It was 8 years old when I replaced it. It still was working fine enough and probably could have lasted another 8 (who knows). As a family though, we were just tired of living as the water heater "told us" and so I decided to "convert".
And so, the big bang for me is the continuous hot water. The additional savings is just icing on the cake.
Some pictures:
September 07 Bill: 16 therms billed.
September 08 Bill (Aug 13 to Sept 12): 12 therms billed.
12 / 16 = 0.75
Or, a 25% savings.
I would think as the weather gets colder, the savings would continue.
I do have a major hot water use this year that I did not have last year however that may skew things a little. My wife is 37 weeks in her pregnancy. Sometimes she literally takes 3 baths in a day. It helps her with the pain. Even with that I still was able to get a 25% savings.
As far as the experience goes ... pretty typical of other tankless units I think.
I can run two showers without a hitch. I do not notice any fluctuation in temperature at all. I think the tankless does a really good job of keeping the temperature the same regardless of the load. Temperature consistency has been great. Don't notice cold "sandwiches" during use at all.
There has been a time or two where I have run into low flow situations where the flow was too low for it to kick in.
Getting ready in the morning is great. Back with the tank, usually by the end of the 3rd shower we were out of hot water. That was tough when you have at times 6 people that need showers and baths. We typically would have 2 or three people shower, wait 30 minutes to an hour, followed by the rest. Now, we just shower. The hot water heater no longer runs our life. I would definitely recommend a tankless if you have a large family.
Also, back with a tank, when another person started to shower in the other shower, you would also have to "fight" for your share of the hot water by upping the hot water every minute or two until you were done or ran out of hot water. Now, when someone jumps in the other shower, I do nothing but shower. The temperature of my shower stays the same with the tankless. It is really nice.
Obviously seek a plumber to see if a tankless application is possible.
Edit:
I had a 50 gallon "basic" natural gas tank prior. Nothing fancy, no special venting, etc. It was 8 years old when I replaced it. It still was working fine enough and probably could have lasted another 8 (who knows). As a family though, we were just tired of living as the water heater "told us" and so I decided to "convert".
And so, the big bang for me is the continuous hot water. The additional savings is just icing on the cake.
Some pictures:
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