I told you about the Great Floor Debate of 2008. No, it was not some bipartisan effort to secure some sort of government funding – it was whether or not my Future Husband and I should invest $1,500 in new laminate flooring for our unfortunately carpeted kitchen.
FH makes the big ticket decisions in our house – mostly because the money that pays for these items come directly from his checking account. Although I am consulted in all things big ticket, I usually view myself as a sounding board. And honestly – FH and I usually agree on household purchases. We would like a new kitchen floor eventually and it’s not extravagant, it’s replacing dated carpeting that would seriously hit the resale value of our home if we ever hope to sell our place. Next summer we’re probably going to need to re-shingle the roof because I’m no expert, but I’ve looked at the shingles and the word “peeling” comes to mind. We replaced the furnace this summer because of some problems we had during our first winter in the house and FH was in mortal fear that it would just die on us during this winter.
Well, in the grand scheme of all things house-related, there’s another purchase that my honey has been ruminating on lately and I got to be honest – I don’t know that we need to spend money on this latest scheme: FH wants a new water heater.
To be honest, I’m not sure where this latest obsession comes from – as far as I can tell, our current water heater works just fine. I’ve never had any problems with getting hot water, even after we’ve had multiple guests use our shower and because we usually use the cold water setting on our washer, that doesn’t have an impact on hot water usage.
So I’m subscribing to the “if it ain’t broke, don’t replace it” method of thinking. But, as my FH points out, our current heater must be from the late 1970s or 1980s (hell, it could be a relic from when the house was built in 1967 …) and there are far more energy efficient models on the market today that could save us more money in the long run.
So … I ask you dear readers, does anyone have any wisdom or enlightenment when it comes to water heaters? I haven’t done any research on the subject yet (and to be honest, if FH really decides he wants one, I’m probably not going to have too much of a fuss), but I’d like to gather intelligent opinions.
I replaced my tank style water heater with a tankless one by Bosch in 1998 and my energy cost went down 40%. This has been true for 3 neighbors as well. The tankless have no parts that wear out/replace. They are a little more expensive to buy but more than pay for the difference quickly. Also – they are wall mounted & take up much less space. They come in natural gas and propane models.
You are looking at a payback period of probably less than 5 years if you get an efficient new water heater to replace the one you have. That’s a good investment in anyone’s book, plus it’s very good for the environment and as utilities increase in price the investment will return more and more.
Between the water heater and the refrigerator, those are the most cost effective appliances to replace if either is more than 10 years old. Refrigerators are the largest users of electricity in most households and new ultraefficient ones blow any older units out of the water
I have been doing the same thinking about a new water heater. So far, I plan to delay my decision by getting an insulating blanket for about $20.
This will hopefully stretch my decision until a new generation of water heaters is out in a year or two with dramatically improved efficiencies. Already available are Solar based water heaters, but major manufactures will also have Heat-pump based water heaters.
Thanks for the comment guys! I’m going to share this with Future Husband and we’ll see where it goes from there. I think we’ll probably wait until spring to make this improvement. Right now it’s too darn cold!