hot water, cold climate

I want to use this water heater in the house that I saw down in Atlanta. This is a tankless water heater. It sits on the wall and uses this internal combustion apparatus to instantly heat water and deliver it where it's needed. So there is no excessive energy wasting when you are not using hot water. It lasts twice as long as a typical tank and uses half the energy.... BUT it costs 2.5 times the price!! From a strict cost/benefit analysis over the probable timeline that I will be in this house... its better to go with a tank.

I am, however, trying to get in the mindset of including ALL COSTS in my new Return On Investment models.

I want to get away from... The laziness of self-reliance.(a phrase I recently coined) What I mean is that I need hotwater to be ready and waiting when I want it. I need to be able to get back the extra $400 I will spend on the tankless heater ASAP. I need to choose a system that most plumbers are comfortable with, so I can get it repaired when I need to.

I am trying to think more about what my neighbors need as well.

    My neighbors need to have available energy.
  • Instead of holding 50+ gallons of water in a typical tank that uses energy to keep the water inside warm 24hrs a day, it only operates when needed.
  • This results in up to a 50% energy savings, plus a potentially endless supply of hot water
      • My neighbors need to have safe, nontoxic environment to live in.
  • The tankless heater is roughly 1/6 the size of the typical tank. A typical tank will have to be replaced at least once during the lifespan of the tankless heater. So... in 20+ years when the tankless heater is replaced, we will be sending 92% less materials to the closest landfill.

    • But back to cost...

    If I can't afford to pay the extra cash up front, then I can't look out for my neighbor?

      NO I can't... at least not in this way.

    I'm seeing that the "right" choice is very infrequently the "affordable" choice.

    I think of it the same way I think about soy milk. I can afford to the pay the extra $0.40 at Starbucks to get soy milk. Drinking soy milk instead of cow milk is relatively unnoticeable in coffee. It has the added value of being a protein rich substitute. More protein from soy milk means that I need to eat less meat to get my needed protein. Less meat consumption, means less over-grazing cows, less cruel stockpiled steroid juicin chickens, and all the environmental nightmares that accompany them... erosion... green house gasses... mad cow... bird flu, etc...

    But it all comes back to the fact that my grande soy caramel machaitto meant that my local starbucks had to order their next shipment of soy 12 ounces sooner.

    And so I guess I am doing my part to support the growth of an industry I believe in.