Thinking of taking the plunge and going with a tankless Rennai water heater . . . would the extra cost justify the price and switch over from a conventional propane-fired water heater? Pros? Cons?
RE: Rennai tankless high efficiency water heater
- Thread starter firefighterjake
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How much do you plan to save each month by making the switch? I'm going to guess this is a propane fired tankless? Are your lines capable of providing the btu needed for the new unit?
semipro
Minister of Fire
Tankless units have a reputation for poor performance at low flows. I'd also be wary if you have hard water.
Have you considered a condensing tank type gas unit? They're know for efficiency and are direct vented so CO can't escape into the house.
Have you considered a condensing tank type gas unit? They're know for efficiency and are direct vented so CO can't escape into the house.
Talk to me more about condensing tank gas water heaters. This is the first I am hearing about this. My current heater is a propane-fired free unit installed when I switched from heating with oil (using my oil boiler) . . . needless to say it is not very efficient and every time I hear it firing up in middle of the day or night when I am not using or needing hot water I kinda of recoil just a little bit at the waste.
semipro
Minister of Fire
Condensing gas units extract so much heat from the exhaust stream that PVC can be used as the exhaust pipe. They also typically use outside air for combustion just as many new gas furnaces.
If the location is right you could also consider an electric heat pump WH but I assumed you wanted to go with gas.
There is a pretty good article on this here: https://www.familyhandyman.com/plumbing/water-heater/choosing-a-new-water-heater/view-all
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