I've got a 40 gallon natural gas water heater hanging out in a swimming pool hole, basically. The original thought was to elevate it. Then I thought about an external on-demand on the back of the house. That's a complete failure after learning just how hard those are to keep maintained constantly and how often you'll go through water heaters (from what many others have told me) if you don't constantly maintain it. Then there's the cold, worrying about insulating the pipes and all of that.
The crawlspace stays fairly warm because the furnace is there and it outputs some heat from the top of the pipe on the condensation pump. So if it is set for 70 in the house, it might be 60+ in the crawlspace even when it is 40 outside. So, I'm pondering an on-demand natural gas water heater.
How reliable are they? How much regular maintenance do they require vs a regular natural gas water heater? Will the gas bill shoot up and double/triple by getting one? Small 2 bedroom, 1 bath house. No dishwasher is used (we prefer the old fashioned way, anyway) and we don't do a bunch of chaining of showers back to back. We don't use a ton of hot water. What all would be required? More efficient than regular gas water heaters?
It could be installed just feet from the stack vent that goes up through the roof. Will a larger gas pipe be needed? Is there a way to determine if my current gas meter has a high enough flow rate for such a thing without changing the pipe and/or meter?
The crawlspace stays fairly warm because the furnace is there and it outputs some heat from the top of the pipe on the condensation pump. So if it is set for 70 in the house, it might be 60+ in the crawlspace even when it is 40 outside. So, I'm pondering an on-demand natural gas water heater.
How reliable are they? How much regular maintenance do they require vs a regular natural gas water heater? Will the gas bill shoot up and double/triple by getting one? Small 2 bedroom, 1 bath house. No dishwasher is used (we prefer the old fashioned way, anyway) and we don't do a bunch of chaining of showers back to back. We don't use a ton of hot water. What all would be required? More efficient than regular gas water heaters?
It could be installed just feet from the stack vent that goes up through the roof. Will a larger gas pipe be needed? Is there a way to determine if my current gas meter has a high enough flow rate for such a thing without changing the pipe and/or meter?
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