Electric tankless hot water heater

former33t

I'm looking at this electric tankless hot water heater and had some questions..

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...9&ddkey=Search

Has anyone actually installed one of these? I'm in the process of upgrading from a 60A to a 200A panel and will have plenty of room for this (replacing a 40 gal electric water heater). I read the reviews on the home depot site and on amazon, but was curious if anyone had any experience actually installing and/or using one of these. I'm not so turned off by the cost since it would potentially free up a lot of room for me. I can't see how it could be any more costly to operate than my current tank electric heater.

The one thing I worry about is flow rate. We have two baths and this says it can run 3.8Gpm. Ideally I'd like to be able to be taking a shower and not get blasted with cold water when someone turns on the sink. I'm reasonably certain I won't be able to run both showers at the same time. Another poster mentioned that an electric wouldn't even handle a bathtub at full blast (without getting cool). Is that true? I live in Augusta, GA where it only dips below freezing for a month or two a year (at night) so I think the incoming water will be fairly warm. I know in the summer, even the cold water feels warm from the tap.

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

End Grain

Try visiting the manufacturer's website and look at their specs. I was looking at a Bosch tankless unit and they (Bosch) state exactly what you can expect, i.e one shower and one faucet, etc.

moneymgmt

An acurate incoming water temp would be very helpful in your research. The model you found is ratied 3.7gpm at a 50 degree rise, which isn't all that much. Minimum shower temp for a wife not to kill you is about 100, 110 is much better. As far as using 2 fixtures at once, you should be fine at 3.5-4. If you want to run two showers together do yourself a favor and go find a low-flow / high-pressure shower head (NOT a low-pressure head, they're completely different) for $30 and you'll have no problems. Low-flow heads will use 1.5-1.8 gpm opposed to 2.5 in a standard head.

Filling the tub is another issue, you have to realize that at full blast you're pulling upwards of 4gpm. Just don't open it full throttle and it won't be an issue. At least with a tanless if someone fills the bath in one bathroom, you can immediately take back to back to back showers in the other one!