Two electric home water heaters cheaper than a single gas one?

[Quattro Pete]

Currently talking to a home builder... he claims that, including parts and labor, having two 50-gal electric water heaters would cost less than a single 50-gal gas one. Can this really be true?

FYI, his "standard" home includes one 50-gal electric water heater, and he charges $1,200 extra to add that second 50-gal electric heater.

 

[JohnnyG]

I'd say a lot of factors would need to be considered. Such as, how large is the house, and are there very long runs between the heaters and point of use.
If this is the case, I could see it making some sense, since a lot of cold water (which was once heated) is wasted getting hot water to the farthest faucet.

 

[Ride_Red]

I suppose it depends on how water is run throughout the house. A friend's house had a bathroom all the way on the other end of the house. He installed a local water heater for the sink and shower. It ended up saving him money on his water and energy bills because the wife and kids kept wasting water waiting to wash their hands with warm water. All that cold water needed to be flushed out of the pipes across the house every time. Wasted cold water down the drain and an equivalent amount of cold water entering into the water heater that then had to be heated. Every time they washed their hands or took a shower.

 

[SC Maintenance]

After 10 years with an instant hot water heater (mine is gas), I could not imagine owning a house with a water heater that keeps water in a tank.

 

[Quattro Pete]

FYI, we are not talking about on-going utility costs here (gas vs electric). We are just talking about the cost of install and cost of the heaters themselves.

 

[eljefino]

Depends on the local gas mafia, I suppose. At least vs the sparkies.

 

[oil pan 4]

I would do single gas water heater just to save space.

 

[Egg_Head]

Is he building single family homes that need 100 gallons of HW?

 

[Quattro Pete]

It's a 4000+ sq ft home. Like I said, his standard includes a single 50gal electric water heater.

I told him I prefer 50 gal gas heater instead due to quicker recovery. And that's when he replied that it would be cheaper to include two 50 gal electric heaters instead of one 50 gal gas one.

 

[brandon9715]

How close are the gas lines? That plays a factor. Location of the water heaters is also a factor because the gas would need to be vented.

 

[oilcandave]

9000 watts depending on how they are setup..does he set them up in parallel or series?

 

[4WD]

Currently talking to a home builder... he claims that, including parts and labor, having two 50-gal electric water heaters would cost less than a single 50-gal gas one. Can this really be true?

FYI, his "standard" home includes one 50-gal electric water heater, and he charges $1,200 extra to add that second 50-gal electric heater.

You building a house or laundromat?

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

It's a 4000+ sq ft home. Like I said, his standard includes a single 50gal electric water heater.

I told him I prefer 50 gal gas heater instead due to quicker recovery. And that's when he replied that it would be cheaper to include two 50 gal electric heaters instead of one 50 gal gas one.

How’s he going to plumb two separate water heaters to keep them balanced on usage??

The only way I’d do two tanks is if you do them in series, and the “first” one is an 80-gallon dual-loop tank made to use solar hot water. That SHW is used to preheat the 80-gal tank to whatever temp it can get to; usually north of 140* during the summer. The exit of that tank is then the infeed of your 50-gal tank, which then almost never has to actually consume energy regardless if it’s gas or electric.

I did this to my previous house; designed with a small pump and controller at the first tank; when the sun went down and the temp in the collectors dropped, the (solar panel-powered) pump would stop to not induce heat loss in the tank. There was a backflow preventer to stop thermal siphoning as well.

The preheat tank worked so well it cut about 90% of the gas use of the water heater. Sure, it added complexity; but if the “primary” WH is electric, there’s no venting and you’re 100% efficient on heating. If you wanted to be really fancy, you could add one of the hot water recirc pumps and feed that back to the preheat tank so you were continuously pushing the heat from the solar into the primary… and likely eliminate all cost except the pennies required to run those two very small recirc pumps.

Its not super convenient as a retrofit but it can be done; in new construction there’s no way I wouldn’t go with this especially if you did a ground mount for the SHW circuit.

 

[alarmguy]

It's a 4000+ sq ft home. Like I said, his standard includes a single 50gal electric water heater.

I told him I prefer 50 gal gas heater instead due to quicker recovery. And that's when he replied that it would be cheaper to include two 50 gal electric heaters instead of one 50 gal gas one.

Cheaper to install not cheaper to run for the rest of your life.

 

[Egg_Head]

Our previous home had a 50 gal gas water heater, maybe AO Smith or Rheem. It had some super duper quick recovery mode. Loved it. Family of 4 who all love our hot showers, we never came close to running out of HW and it worked when the power was out.

 

[KevinMalone]

Might make sense if they have to run gas lines and a vent for the gas tank. Electric is much easier to install, but your operating costs may be a lot higher. Lots of variables

Around here, a John Wood Pro-Line 50 gal gas tank is close to $1500 CAD, while the comparable 50 gal electric tank is $1100.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Might make sense if they have to run gas lines and a vent for the gas tank. Electric is much easier to install, but your operating costs may be a lot higher. Lots of variables

Around here, a John Wood Pro-Line 50 gal gas tank is close to $1500 CAD, while the comparable 50 gal electric tank is $1100.

Still, how can TWO electric ones cost less than a SINGLE gas one?

 

[KevinMalone]

Still, how can TWO electric ones cost less than a SINGLE gas one?

Maybe the included electric tank are cheap builder grade units? Maybe his gas tank quote is marked up to deter people from choosing it? Who knows, ask him

 

[eljefino]

How’s he going to plumb two separate water heaters to keep them balanced on usage??

Just do one for the womens' bathroom and one for the rest of the house.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Maybe the included electric tank are cheap builder grade units? Maybe his gas tank quote is marked up to deter people from choosing it? Who knows, ask him

Yeah, I'm trying to get this out of him. My suspicion is that he's going to propose an electric HVAC heating unit as well and not run any gas lines to the utility room in the basement, which is why he doesn't want to deal with gas hot water heater either. Otherwise, he would have to do the required venting that gas furnace and gas water heater would require.