Gas/Electric or tankless water heater

Nice to have hot water during power outages during hurricanes - being from Broussard you would be familiar with that - you’ll have hot water with a tank gas water heater. It was nice to take hot showers for the 4 days I was without power during Ida.

Your house is nearly identical in sq footage to mine, 4 bed, 3 full baths, 2,460 sq ft living area. I have 2 tank natural gas water heaters, 50 gal for bedroom wing and 40 gal for rest of house (kitchen, laundry, a 3rd full bath).

That said I’ll be replacing both water heaters in a couple months b/c of age. My BIL is a master plumber and will do the work as soon as the attic cools in a couple or 3 months. This what he has suggested and I will go with. 40 gal tank gas water heater will be replaced with another 40 gal tank water heater. The 50 gal tank water heater that supplies the main bedroom wing room (2 bathrooms) will be replaced with a Navien tankless gas recirculating water heater that operates off a standard 1/2 inch gas line and doesn’t need to be up-sized to a 3/4 inch gas line.

Anyway - some food for thought for you to consider. Can’t comment on problems with gas hookups in Broussard - that sounds strange.

I had a gas tankless water heater at my last house and loved it. It is more money up front, but less to run for unlimited water supply.

I have no complaints with my tankless. When power is out, generator to the sub panel still provides hot water

I have a gas, tankless water heater. I could shower for 2 weeks, should I desire to. During power outages, generator provides spark.

Only issues is when water line has low water pressure, but I’d suppose tank water heaters have issues then also…

New construction, absolutely go with tankless. We just had to replace our traditional water heater and looked into tankless. It was going to be a lot of coin to retrofit it into our 1991 constructed home. I kind of wish I'd just bit the bullet now though. We went with a 50 gallon gas one, and it's been giving us problems. Rheem at some point turned into a shite company with awful customer service and reliability.

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why have a gas tank on one circuit?

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I know the question is not addressed to me but this my rationale and experience, with a standard no frills gas tank water heater you still have the availability of hot water during prolonged power outages on demand - no electricity involved/required. This was my case in Ida, Gustav, the Feb ice storm power outage and every other hurricane related extended power outage I experienced as child and adult growing up and living in south LA. This is why when I replace my 2 natural gas tank water heaters in a couple months I’m keeping 1 natural gas tank water heater on a separate circuit.

With a gas tankless you still require a 120 V power source for it to operate and produce hot water, or battery backup to power the electronics.

Of course if you have whole house generator (I don’t) or if you power the 120 Volt circuit for the gas tankless with a portable generator then i suppose it becomes a moot point.