About Instantaneous Gas Heaters

I guess I first started thinking about tankless water heaters during my travels. I noticed in the U.K., Europe, Pacific Rim countries and many other parts of the world, that everyone uses tankless water heaters. Common sense told me there had to be a reason.

Fuel costs have historically been much higher in the rest of the world, resulting in more efficient water heating equipment. I learned that tankless water heaters are 25-30% more efficient than tank types which have to burn 25-30% longer just to keep the water in the tank hot. Also, because they have single or multiple flues running up the middle of the tank, when the burner is off, cool air can travel through and draw significant heat back out of the stored water, which is very wasteful and inefficient. My tankless water heater has one tank to keep hot or to lose heat through and the burner only comes on when hot water is needed. This is how I save 30%, and contribute 30% flue gas emissions to the environment.

I next found out that even though a tankless water heater costs more than the tank type water heater, they last 3 to 4 times longer. In North America we are used to throwing away the whole water heater every 5 to 7 years when it leaks. Tankless heaters are designed to be repaired – you never throw them out. This, to my mind, is investment and conservation smart.

I guess the clincher was the time we were traveling with the Murray's and one night we all had to share a small cottage – five adults and four kids. We had driven all day, we were hot and dusty and decided we could clean up and go out for supper. We had nine leisurely showers one after the other and never ran out of hot water – and yes, you guessed it, there was a Bosch tankless water heater mounted right on the wall of the kitchen unit. We just couldn’t believe it!

I bought my Bosch heater when my tank heater failed, and its small size (31”H x 18”W x 9”D) and the fact that it uses no floor space was really helpful when we remodeled our kitchen. My friend Ron, who’s a plumber, said it was just as easy to install as a tank type.

If you asked me if there were any negative factors, I would really have to say no. But there are two things you should be aware of. First, because the heaters are flow activated and operate on a pressure differential, it’s very important to have a minimum of 30 psi water supply pressure. The other point is that while you can run a shower continuously and never run out of hot water, you can’t run more than one shower or major appliance at the same time. However, this doesn’t worry us at most homes, even with 2 or 3 bathrooms, rarely run baths or showers at the same time because of the temperature fluctuations and the fact that with heavy demand, a tank type heater soon runs out of hot water and you have to wait for it to heat up again. Tankless water heaters never keep you waiting!

Are we happy with our Bosch unit? We save up to 30% on our gas bill, conserve energy, save space, protect the environment, never run out of hot water and we have a smart, long term investment that is going to save us money for as long as we burn gas – you bet we are!