HOT WATER HEATER

[ALAN]

Question: Has anyone thought of or looked into adding or replacing the hot water heater with a tankless unit? For a house you can get either electric or gas operated units and I was thinking about this for our new 3400rl.

[bigmurf]

Not as long as the current one works.

[mtheo]

I have looked in to home units, home units require a 3/4" gas line and the electric units take a dedcaited 30 or 40 amps.

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Although we used one in Morocco, and LOVED it.

We have not thought much about it here, they are very pricy.

We also find that the current hot water heater, if you turn on both the electric and propane at the same time heats up quite fast.

Last winter in the RGV, we tried heating the water, when needed, use what we need, then turning off the heater, found the water would stay quite warm for a number of hours, and we saved a bucket load of $$ in both electric and propane.

Ozz has a timer on his, fancier method than our manually turning on and off.

[TAKPAK]

I deal with commercial units, but have also done home units as well. For the RV, you would not be able to fit an electric one in without major modifications. Electrics also do not provide as much GPM flow as gas units, simply because the electrics don't have the BTU capabilities, for a given size. The BIG drawback on an electric would be the power required. It would take the entire service at your "post" (if it's a 50 amp) to run the electric. By virtue of this reason, you won't see many electric units installed. For the gas heater, you could have one installed, but again it's going to take some modification. It will also take considerable gas (propane) while you are using it. Simply, if you retain your existing electric heater as is, you can use the "park" power. If you put in a gas unit, it's your $$$ in propane you are using. It IS a good idea for residential and commercial, but for RV's, it is still pretty much personal choice as to what you want to do, but from the economic aspect, there is nothing to gain at this point in time. Technology will change, and someday, maybe........???

Hope that helps.

FYI, I installed an electric unit for a commercial building with just two, 2.5 GPM showers for the "joggers!". It is a 480 volt 3 phase unit measuring 4 feet tall, 4 feet wide, and 8 inches deep, and requires an 80 amp circuit to power it.