| This article is not intended to bash tankless water | | | | water must be heated by the tankless heater |
| heaters, but there are some cons as well as pros | | | | and then make it to the tap. Not only does it take |
| when it comes to tankless water heaters. | | | | considerably longer to get hot water to the sink, |
| As is well advertised, tankless water heaters save | | | | but it warms up much more gradually than with a |
| energy. The savings come from the fact that the | | | | storage type water heater. This means you are |
| tankless water heaters do not have a tank full of | | | | running more water down the drain while you are |
| water slowly leaking out heat all day and all night. | | | | waiting for the hot water to reach the fixture, |
| Another factor for gas water heaters is the | | | | and finally stabilize at the desired temperature. |
| tankless units don’t having standing pilot lights. | | | | There is a fix; a demand type hot water pump |
| Actually some do, but most don’t. Even so, | | | | would solve the wasted water problem. With a |
| we are not talking about a very large amount of | | | | demand hot water system you don’t run any |
| energy. | | | | water down the drain while you are waiting, and |
| One of the advertised benefits is endless hot | | | | you don’t wait as long either. |
| water. Take as long a shower as you like, you will | | | | The circulating system must be a |
| never run out. However, there is a price to be | | | | “demand” type system. A traditional full |
| paid. Suddenly you are not actually saving energy, | | | | time hot water circulating system with a return |
| but using more energy with that longer shower. | | | | line from the last fixture back to the water |
| Human nature being what it is, many families | | | | heater will not work. It would either keep the |
| actually spend more money on heating water | | | | heater on all the time, or it wouldn’t pump |
| after switching to a tankless water heater. | | | | enough water to turn the heater on at all, |
| As for those folks interested in conserving water, | | | | depending upon the size of the pump. A traditional |
| tankless water heaters are not a friend. It takes | | | | circulating system will void the warranty of a |
| longer to get hot water from a tankless unit than | | | | tankless unit, or greatly reduce it. |
| a storage type water heater because when you | | | | By combining a tankless water heater with a |
| turn on the tap with a storage heater the hot | | | | demand type hot water circulating system you |
| water immediately flows into the pipe and off to | | | | get the best of both worlds. You save energy |
| the tap. But with the tankless unit, there is no hot | | | | and you save water. Perhaps best of all you save |
| water ready and waiting to flow off to the tap, all | | | | time since you don’t have to wait as long for |
| the water in the system is cold. So first the | | | | your hot water. |