It is a shame you are being forced to spend the extra money in switching to an electric hot water tank. Let this be a warning to anybody thinking of buying something from Sears.
I read through the CR article and found I agreed with most of it. With just my wife and I in the house now, our hot water costs don't even come near the stated averages. I just checked my August gas bill. Between the WH and the drier, we used 13 cuft of gas for $7. The whole bill was $23. Now lets see $2000/$7 = 286 months if it reduced the gas usage entirely. A more realistic figure would extend the payback to at least 50 years. Say I went with the Titan on Ebay and installed it myself getting the cost down to $700. Hot water usage would go up more in the winter. $100/yr might be a reasonable guess. If the new heater saved 22 percent, that would be $22 a year, over 30 years for a payback.
Now some other points. When I take a shower, I turn the hot water on full blast. With about 50' of pipe, it takes a while before I get hot water. I then turn down both the temperature and volume. It would be quite possible I could shut the heater off by reducing the hot water too much. By the time the cold water hit, I could be in the shower and soaped up.
Electric tankless? 4 slots? I only have 100 amp service. I think most newer houses have at least 200 amps, but even that may not be enough depending on what else you have. A new bigger box and upgraded service? I know my neighbor put in a bigger box and the electric company refused to upgrade his service.
I have a 1'' gas line coming in, but I am not sure how much gas is available.
Blue goose, it sounds to me like you have already taken one of the most important steps is saving hot water, getting your teenagers to limit their showers to 10 minutes. I can remember telling my father in law he should put in a bigger hot water heater. His answer was that a couple of the younger kids would still stay in the shower until the hot water was gone. Others wanting to save on hot water might follow suit. The tankless units will only make sense for those using large quantities of hot water. Reducing your hot water usage might make even more sense.
I read through the CR article and found I agreed with most of it. With just my wife and I in the house now, our hot water costs don't even come near the stated averages. I just checked my August gas bill. Between the WH and the drier, we used 13 cuft of gas for $7. The whole bill was $23. Now lets see $2000/$7 = 286 months if it reduced the gas usage entirely. A more realistic figure would extend the payback to at least 50 years. Say I went with the Titan on Ebay and installed it myself getting the cost down to $700. Hot water usage would go up more in the winter. $100/yr might be a reasonable guess. If the new heater saved 22 percent, that would be $22 a year, over 30 years for a payback.
Now some other points. When I take a shower, I turn the hot water on full blast. With about 50' of pipe, it takes a while before I get hot water. I then turn down both the temperature and volume. It would be quite possible I could shut the heater off by reducing the hot water too much. By the time the cold water hit, I could be in the shower and soaped up.
Electric tankless? 4 slots? I only have 100 amp service. I think most newer houses have at least 200 amps, but even that may not be enough depending on what else you have. A new bigger box and upgraded service? I know my neighbor put in a bigger box and the electric company refused to upgrade his service.
I have a 1'' gas line coming in, but I am not sure how much gas is available.
Blue goose, it sounds to me like you have already taken one of the most important steps is saving hot water, getting your teenagers to limit their showers to 10 minutes. I can remember telling my father in law he should put in a bigger hot water heater. His answer was that a couple of the younger kids would still stay in the shower until the hot water was gone. Others wanting to save on hot water might follow suit. The tankless units will only make sense for those using large quantities of hot water. Reducing your hot water usage might make even more sense.
