tankless water heates

[fireplug]

I just purchased a new build house from a guy in North MS. The drawings show 2 hot water heaters on the plans, but the builder only put one 50 gallon tank in place. I went round and round with him about it and he swears its enough, but the house has 3 bathrooms and I have 3 kids. No way it will be enough. He wanted to charge me a stupid amount of money to add another tank so I passed.

I don't have access to natural gas in the area and I'm not going to run any propane out there. So do any of you have any experience with electric tankless water heaters? Do they actually heat water up fast enough like the gas ones do?

[Wildfowler]

You could be in a little bit of a pickle. To go to two flash heaters via gas or propane you may have to upgrade size of gas lines, regulators, etc. this could be a big job after the fact.

I have no info on electric flash heaters. I'm sure they exist. I just don't know anything about them. I've always "heard" they don't work as well as gas.

I'm thinking your cheapest way out now would be to add an electric tank near the other tank.

I'd suggest you talk to the plumber who did the work and get him to give you better info. I don't necessarily think that's adequate, I'm just saying

For what it's worth, many houses that size that I worked in only have one tank.

[teul2]

I have a electric tankless and I love it. We were able to reclaim a nice chunk of closet space with the swap. Mine takes two 30A 220v circuits. That was the hardest part of the install was the electrical.
Yes, it will increase your electric bill some, but not much.
One thing I never really considered was the degree to which the ground (incoming) water temp is going to play into the outgoing temp. Week to week, you probably wont have the "same knob setting" in the shower. We could lower the temp in the summer and raise it in the winter to compensate for the change, but we just adjust the shower knobs as needed.
The only other knock on ours is that the internals are all 1/2 pipe. And I had already plumbed everything all the way though to the shower in 3/4. So I have a pressure differential that I have to play with. 3/4 to 1/2 back to 3/4 messes up your water pressure a good bit. But it is not an issue, just something I know I have to wait on to balance out before I get in the shower.

[DanP]

My dad is a builder in the Jackson area and he pretty much only uses tankless water heaters now. I'm not sure which brand electric he uses, but they work great.

[fireplug]

[Greenhead22]

Test the hardness of your water before you install a tankless water heater. We didn't before we installed ours at the camp in Arkansas. $700 for the heater and another $1500 later we've had to install a filter system and water softener kit.

[teul2]

[lilwhitelie]

There is no comparison once you have tankless, especially if you have girls. You should try and put it in a central spot at your house to avoid wait times for hot water but most put it on one end or another and I would rather wait for hot water than run out.