Pros/Cons- Gas water heater vs Electric WH???

[Blue_Goose]

Since my issue with venting of my gas water heater does not seem to be able to be solved by plumbers who have looked at it I am thinking seriously of switching over from gas to electric. Other than the obvious rise in my electric bill, is there any drawbacks? Can I swap a 40 gallon gas with a 40 gallon electric? Does the water stay warmer in a gas WH?


Anything you can think of???


Peace of mind is important to me right now for my families safety and the fumes I get from the gas water heater are not good....I'm afraid of spending a lot of money on trying to "maybe" fix things and I know an electric one takes all the venting right out of the equation



Is one brand of electric water heater better than others?


Thanks

 

[LS2JSTS]

Get yourself a whole house instant on gas HWH. The idea of keeping a large supply of water hot at all times is wasteful and archaeic.

You'll pay more up front but the savings will return that investment quickly. I have an electric whole house instant HWH and my electric bills are tiny compared to what my gas bill used to be for a tank HWH.


If you do insist on keeping last centuries technology at work for you, then I have had great luck with AO Smith HWH's. If you get an electric heater, the biggest killer of them is deposit build up on the heater elements. You'll want to occasionally remove and either clean them or replace them.

 

[bepperb]

A gas water heater will regenerate (heat new hot water) more quickly than an electric.

Helped a friend install an instant gas water heater. I'm not sure how many years it will be until it pays for itself, but it is instant (well, so is a tank water heater) and works well. His is a power vent, but required a very large vent, IIRC 6 by 6 inches.

 

[LS2JSTS]

Originally Posted By: bepperb
A gas water heater will regenerate (heat new hot water) more quickly than an electric.

Helped a friend install an instant gas water heater. I'm not sure how many years it will be until it pays for itself, but it is instant (well, so is a tank water heater) and works well. His is a power vent, but required a very large vent, IIRC 6 by 6 inches.


In my case, the numbers show me breaking even in about 3-4 years if the electric rates remain steady. They really are a great investment and IMO should be the law. Our housing codes in this country are from the 19th Century it seems to me.

 

[LoneRanger]

In New Hampshire a tankless water may not cut it unless you buy one of the high end ones that can put a large enough rise on the incoming water temp. Tankless heaters can generally only put a certain max rise on the temp of the incoming water, so if you need at least 140 deg water and your incoming is 40 deg then you would need a tankless that can put a 100 deg rise on the water. May depend on the water source.

In conventional heaters, AO Smith's Conservationist line is the most energy efficient residential gas HWH, @ 90% efficiency. They sell power vent type that is 97% efficient.

I would try to do gas if at all possible, a tank type electric HWH will rob you blind compared to a gas unit after Cap & Trade hikes electric rates.

 

[yeti]

other than higher utility bills -- the recovery time for the stored water to come up to temp is longer than with gas. LS2 brings up a good point. a lot depends on your hydro and gas costs, relative to each other, if you consider LS2's idea.

 

[cjhepburn]

How old is your current water heater?

Electric doesn't cycle nearly as quickly as gas so you may consider upsizing to a 50 gallon.

Re: tankless
Your up front cost is about $2k and for my usage, that put the ROI at about 7-8 years not including the time value of money. On-demand or tankless HW requires a lot more electronic control than a tanked water heater. If in those 7-8 years there is even one unscheduled service call, your ROI will get extended even further.
With that said, Europe has successfully been using these for decades. You can change the temperature on the fly using the remote. So if you like to take 105°F showers but want the laundry at 150°F, it's a simple as changing the setting on the remote.
Also, it doesn't handle the on/off/on/off cycles very well as in if you hand dishwash.

 

[mrsilv04]

Originally Posted By: LS2JSTS
They really are a great investment and IMO should be the law. Our housing codes in this country are from the 19th Century it seems to me.


This type of a "nanny state" mentality is unwelcome in my home.

You really want the government to tell us what kind of hot water heater to use?

 

[fdcg27]

We heat with oil, so we don't have a choice, unless we put a hot water coil in the boiler, which would be okay during the winter, and very wasteful during the summer.
The cost of running an electric water heater does not seems too bad, based on our electric bills over the years.
We have a fifty gallon Whirlpool, which I installed six or seven years ago.
Replacing the original was pretty easy.
Do you have the wiring and the amps to spare to support an electric water heater?
An electrician will not come cheap, and I would not run a new 220 circuit by myself, considering the safety of all.
All in all, I think you would find an electric water heater a decent choice, although almost everyone who has natural gas avilable chooses it over electric.
Finally, a venting problem cannot be insurmountable.
Maybe talk to an HVAC guy, rather than a plumber?

 

[LS2JSTS]

Up front cost for me on a 120,000 btu equivalent unit was about $1,300 including installation. But that was new construction with no retro fit issues. I also got a small credit from the utility company to offset some of the initial costs.

Once you own one, you'll never look back...or wait for hot water for a shower ever again....lol

 

[LS2JSTS]

Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: LS2JSTS
They really are a great investment and IMO should be the law. Our housing codes in this country are from the 19th Century it seems to me.


This type of a "nanny state" mentality is unwelcome in my home.

You really want the government to tell us what kind of hot water heater to use?




They already do. They just tell you to use the wrong type at this time. Building codes protect everyone and have existed for years. The argument isn't whether we should have building codes, their purpose is important. The question is should we have building codes that make sense in light of available technologies. And currently we we don't, not even close.

sorry to go off topic OP.

 

[tom slick]

What about having a powered exhaust installed in your current water heater's duct?

 

[JHZR2]

The thing with electric is that the heating cycle is effectively 100% efficient. There are no heat loss issues due to diluent airflow for combustion.

You will need to consider running the electric service (240V coils?) both inside your home and to your home, depending upon age/condition.

Electric heaters have no stack losses, because there is no chimney to attach to, so a real good one with extra insulation inside and out.

You can do the calculation this way:

# of gallons per day used.

Average intake temp and desired set temperature = delta T.

BTU per degree rise per mass or volume (watch all your units) of water = energy requirement. Multiply this by the delat T and by the number of gallons to get a total energy requirement.

cost per MMBTU of gas *0.55 for efficiency * number ot BTUs required = gas cost/day

and

convert energy to kW required, multiply by 24 to go to kWh from kW/day, then multiply by your rate. This should give you electric cost per day.

I think that is right, dont have time to review my maths this instant, but this should get you a cost...

 

[DeeAgeaux]

Originally Posted By: LS2JSTS


and IMO should be the law. Our housing codes in this country are from the 19th Century it seems to me.


That is exactly what we need, the Nanny State ordering us to buy a particular type of water heater.

 

[PandaBear]

Unless you are going tankless, there really is no reason to go electric. You need a sustain heat that keep the temperature in the tank and the cost of electricity is usually much higher than gas even when the chimney and pilot light loss is included.

For cold climate electric heater draw so much currents that doesn't make sense. You can probably have small modules for faucets but for showers and laundries I would stay with gas tank.

 

[bigmike]

Originally Posted By: LS2JSTS
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: LS2JSTS
They really are a great investment and IMO should be the law. Our housing codes in this country are from the 19th Century it seems to me.


This type of a "nanny state" mentality is unwelcome in my home.

You really want the government to tell us what kind of hot water heater to use?




They already do. They just tell you to use the wrong type at this time. Building codes protect everyone and have existed for years. The argument isn't whether we should have building codes, their purpose is important. The question is should we have building codes that make sense in light of available technologies. And currently we we don't, not even close.

sorry to go off topic OP.


The difference is a couple of monkeys can install an electric water heater, but to install a tankless unit takes more expertise and gas (which has the tendency to explode).

I know I can install an electric unit because my brain power is above that of a standard educated monkey. Not so sure about me trying to do a tankless unit, not to mention the up front cost and having a large bomb sit next to my house. No thanks. Leave the government out of the equation.

 

[LS2JSTS]

Originally Posted By: bigmike
Originally Posted By: LS2JSTS
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: LS2JSTS
They really are a great investment and IMO should be the law. Our housing codes in this country are from the 19th Century it seems to me.


This type of a "nanny state" mentality is unwelcome in my home.

You really want the government to tell us what kind of hot water heater to use?




They already do. They just tell you to use the wrong type at this time. Building codes protect everyone and have existed for years. The argument isn't whether we should have building codes, their purpose is important. The question is should we have building codes that make sense in light of available technologies. And currently we we don't, not even close.

sorry to go off topic OP.


The difference is a couple of monkeys can install an electric water heater, but to install a tankless unit takes more expertise and gas (which has the tendency to explode).

I know I can install an electric unit because my brain power is above that of a standard educated monkey. Not so sure about me trying to do a tankless unit, not to mention the up front cost and having a large bomb sit next to my house. No thanks. Leave the government out of the equation.



A tankless unit with electronic ignition and no pilot light is infinitely safer than a typical gas HWH. And they are actually easier to install, lot of information from the status quo crowd going around in here.

Oh and going tankless doesnt mean going with gas either. My tankless is electric and it gives sufficient rise to service three major appliances running at the same time. Electric tankless has come a long way, we never here about these advances because we have cheap energy here in the states.

If safety is your main issue than electric is the only way to go, a typical tank gas hwh is a bomb like you say, but a tankless gas unit is far more unlikely to explode.

 

[neverenoughtools]

In the Toronto Ontario vicinity natural gas reins supreme mainly due to energy costs as well as fast recovery times. When I need to replace my conventional h/w tank I will definately go tankless.

 

[bigmike]

Hey, I gotta wonder about a guy who states "hot water heater" instead of "water heater." My dad would go nuts if I said HWH around him.

 

[getnpsi]

I tried several ways of typing "statistics water heater explosions" and only got mythbusters links where they wreak havoc on purpose. How many heaters actually cause destruction? I understand that one water heater accident is too many...but c'mon all mythbusters links?