re: Tankless Water Heater

Everyone's situation is different. You need to know how much energy you currently use for water heating to make a good decision.

For me, a 50 gallon tank is always the winner. I have NG and my therm usage for water heating is rather low. I use about 10-12 therm/month to heat water. At around $0.70/therm, I'm spending less than $10/month on average to heat water.

So for me, if a tankless was 100% more energy efficient, I'd save $5/month. Reality is tankless is about 25% more efficient which would save me $2/month.

Last I looked a tankless would be around $600 more than traditional in my area (could be as high as $1200). The payback would range between 10 year best case and 25 years worst case.

Considering I never run out of hot water, even with 3 kids, using a traditional heater and 1.5gpm shower heads, I cannot find any justification for my situation to change to tankless. In my area I would only recommend it for new builds or situations where you are trying to save space.