Electric vs Propane Water Heater

[Owen Lucas]

It is time to change the water heater, it's 20 years old and seems to be taking longer than I would expect to heat water and get it to the tap.

I can switch to electric or keep a propane heater. I am leaning towards electric as I do not want to deplete propane during the cold weather. Can you guys provide your experience with electric water heaters?


- In your experience, do they take a long time to heat the water and recover after a shower? I've read that they are not as fast as the gas powered models.

- Are electric water heaters very energy intensive and costly? We plan on running a shower 1 or 2x a day and maybe dishwasher 3x a week.

- Which brand or specific model do you recommend? I am open to purchasing from a plumbers supply house to get a reputable high performance unit. Holding a lot of hot water is important. I might just go with a larger model for extra capacity if we end up going electric.

 

[Furious]

My 40 gallon water heater handles 2 showers in a row and takes about an hour to recover. I have A.O Smith. Oh and it is a single element 40 gallon not a double element.

 

[Owen Lucas]

My 40 gallon water heater handles 2 showers in a row and takes about an hour to recover. I have A.O Smith. Oh and it is a single element 40 gallon not a double element.

Is it gas or electric?

 

[Furious]

Is it gas or electric?

Electric, keep in mind I also keep my thermostat set to 120 which is the recommended range. If you prefer hotter like 130-140 it might take a bit longer.

 

[walterjay]

A 50 gallon electric should easily meet all your needs. AO Smith or Rheem are IMO the best. Also look at a Rheem Marathon for a lifetime warranty.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Can you give us the cost of your propane per gallon and the price of electricity per kWhr. Only the costs per volume are required and not the flat rate costs.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Depends on your energy costs. For me, natural gas-powered water heater is significantly cheaper to operate than electric, not to mention recovery time is about half compared to electric one. Not sure how propane cost compares.

 

[Gyro Gearloose]

You can go to www.aosmithatlowes.com and they have a product selector button that will start a questionaire . You can select the fuel choice and put in the particulars for your house and see the products they recommend. At the bottom of the spec listing is the expected annual operating cost. For the simple test case I ran the propane heaters recommended had 50% higher operating cost than the electric. YMMV of course depending on cost of each in your area. Nat gas is of course the winner.

 

[Hall]

I am leaning towards electric as I do not want to deplete propane

I can't speak to propane usage vs natural gas (or do you mean the same thing?), but in the summer in our house, our gas bill / usage is next to nothing. The only gas appliance in use would be our water heater during those months. Unless propane is less efficient than natural gas and uses more for the same amount of energy produced, I wouldn't worry about using up your propane. Last month we used 201 CCF, while in July and August (just looking at the utility company's graph), we used 15-20 CCF each month.

 

[mrsilv04]

You can also put a timer on an electric hot water heater, so that it doesn't heat water when you don't need it, such as overnight. Unless you actually take a shower or run your dishwasher at 2am.

This way, you can shut it down at 8pm, then have it kick on at 5am, so it is ready for a shower at 6am.

Same thing, but backwards... when we were out in the boondocks on the electric cooperative in the 1990's, our electric meter had a clock on it, and we would get electricity dirt cheap in the low demand late night/early morning hours. Had a timer on a super efficient 80 gallon electric hot water heater so that it only ran between 11pm and 5am. Never ran out of hot water, and it only heated water when the power was cheap.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Can you give us the cost of your propane per gallon and the price of electricity per kWhr. Only the costs per volume are required and not the flat rate costs.

Electric is about is $.20 / kWhr and propane is $2.05 / gal last fill-up.

 

[BrendanC]

Have you thought about tankless?

I put some real thought into it when i replaced mine recently but decided against it due to very hard water (later scored a great sale on a softener and recently installed it so i shot myself in the foot)

i went with Natural gas due to availability of hot water in extended power outages and energy savings.

otherwise, my other option was a heat pump hot water heater. they are wicked efficient and still have resistance heating backup for large demands.

 

[Owen Lucas]

I can't speak to propane usage vs natural gas (or do you mean the same thing?

It's actually propane. We have a giant tank outside. I sure miss city NG!

You can also put a timer on an electric hot water heater, so that it doesn't heat water when you don't need it, such as overnight. Unless you actually take a shower or run your dishwasher at 2am.

This way, you can shut it down at 8pm, then have it kick on at 5am, so it is ready for a shower at 6am.

Good idea, I'll look into this.

You can go to www.aosmithatlowes.com and they have a product selector button that will start a questionaire . You can select the fuel choice and put in the particulars for your house and see the products they recommend. At the bottom of the spec listing is the expected annual operating cost. For the simple test case I ran the propane heaters recommended had 50% higher operating cost than the electric. YMMV of course depending on cost of each in your area. Nat gas is of course the winner.

Great observation, thank you for the link! Propane is indeed 50% cheaper, and since it has a faster recovery time, I think it's the way to go.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Have you thought about tankless?

I have not, I'll look into this. I'm not sure if this is still the case, but I've read they take a while to get hot water to the faucet.

 

[BrendanC]

I have not, I'll look into this. I'm not sure if this is still the case, but I've read they take a while to get hot water to the faucet.

my uncle has 2 on propane for his house and he said he will never go back to a tank hot water heater. he has 6 bathrooms and for my wedding, all 6 showers were in use at the same time with all of my family getting ready aswell as myself. that shower was so ungodly hot i was sweating.

 

[walterjay]

Due to the added required maintenance and complexity I would stay away from tankless.

 

[JohnnyG]

Where do you live? Here in FL, I installed a heat pump water heater years ago. 66 gallon I think, and even with a Jacuzzi tub, never ran out of hot water.
Electricity usage is $220 per year.

 

[Elkins45]

We heat with propane and have an electric water heater. I like this combination (our electric rates are cheap here in coal country) and recover times are fine even on a low temperature setting.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Electric is about is $.20 / kWhr and propane is $2.05 / gal last fill-up.

Converting to US dollars it is $ 36.87 per million BTU's for electric and $21.28 per million BTU's for propane. I would take propane. Every State has different scenarios. For your's propane is the cheapest, but if you have other reasons go ahead if you are willing to pay 73% more for electricity. I used 100% efficiency for electricity and 95% for propane. Hope that helps.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Converting to US dollars it is $ 36.87 per million BTU's for electric and $21.28 per million BTU's for propane. I would take propane. Every State has different scenarios. For your's propane is the cheapest, but if you have other reasons go ahead if you are willing to pay 73% more for electricity. I used 100% efficiency for electricity and 95% for propane. Hope that helps.

I appreciate your math conversion. No need to pay extra for a slower heater, propane it is!