214915 Resource 196468 198821 82526 1224606552536 1226935538661 Controlled Consumer Report says Tankless Water Heaters NOT Necessarily Economical Unbiased evaluation indicates High Installation Costs may not justify overall performance <p>Makers of gas-fired tankless water heaters tout their energy savings and operating benefits, but they are not&nbsp;all that attractive.</p><p>Consumer Reports tests indicate a 20 to 22% overall energy savings over conventional gas fired water heaters. However&nbsp;compared to total &nbsp;installed costs, it can take 16 to 22 years to payback their costs. </p><p>This is &nbsp;longer than the life expectancy of most units, longer than high efficiency tank unit paybacks,&nbsp;and longer than solar thermal system paybacks.&nbsp;</p><p>In addition, high efficiency gas-fired water heaters were evaluated, and their savings were&nbsp;fairly low and paybacks also were in the 16 year range. By the way, electric tankless water heaters were not even tested as they cannot deliver hot water fast enough to replace conventional water heaters at cold/cool groundwater temperatures.</p><p>In addition, tests and operating experience indicate&nbsp;other negative&nbsp;issues&nbsp;: they are not instantaneous; water actually can run hot and cold; upfront costs including electrical outlets/upgraded gas pipe capacity/new ventilation hardware are higher than expected; they can need more care and maintenance; they&nbsp;do not eliminate&nbsp;or avoid&nbsp;future fuel cost increases.</p><p>See the entire unbiased test report, look up&nbsp; Consumer Report , October 2008 issue, pages 28-29.</p><p>Remember, solar water heating systems&nbsp;produce FREE energy from the sun throughout their lifetime. The Velux Solar water heating systems can provide 60- 90% savings.</p><p /> 9 application/xml false Consumer Reports electric water heaters free energy instantaneous water heater solar heater solar thermal solar water heaters tankless heaters tankless water heaters Velux solar water heater Tankless Water Heaters, Consumer Reports, October 2008 They are efficient but not necessarily economical http://www.consumerreports.org Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; .NET CLR 1.1.4322) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 RPackard 64.65.162.93 false true false false true 196468 blog blogsite/SkySpec/web