Hot Water Consumption Discussion

[prarieboy]

We currently have two 40 gallon Hot Water Tanks in our house and one of them has decided it doesn't want to work any longer. I'm considering having one of them removed and having only one tank going forward. We are a family of four with two preteen boys.

What's your experience with a single 40 gallon tank? Do you run out of water on a frequent basis? Do you have to plan when to do laundry, run the dishwasher?

I'm just trying to decide if I should remove the second tank or replace it

[Fuzz]

If one of them is dead, can you just try it on one for a week?

[Nufy]

If you have two tanks can't you isolate the bad one and see what happens.

turn off the gas and close the valves to the tank.

Wait a week of so and see what happens.

[Sliver]

40 gallons doesn't sound like enough. We're a family of four and when my 50 gallon died last November I replaced it with a 60 gallon. We never run out now.

[fredr123]

We had a builder-grade 50 gallon tank recently die in our house. We have two adults and three children under 10 but found that we would run out of hot water after filling the bath tub a couple of times.

Turns out the water tank we had was half full of crud and deposits and wasn't all that good to begin with. We were assured by the plumbing company that a proper 50 gallon tank should be fine for our family. We've only had it for the last 3 weeks, but so far so good. We haven't run out of water yet with about the same use as we put our old tank through.

[Sliver]

Yeah, I guess the biggest thing for us was we have a 6' long soaker tub. That thing would completely drain the 50 gallon tank, which is why the 60 gallon was necessary for us. I certainly wouldn't want to operate with just a 40 gallon. You'd have to time dishwasher, laundry, showers, baths, etc. If you have more capacity you never have to think about any of the above. Not that it would be a daily problem, but it'd be enough of a problem that it would bother me.

[Northendzone]

I would think that with some planning you should be able to get by on a 40g tank.

set your dishwasher to run after 9 pm
wash your clothes with cold or warm water
less baths and more showers - except let the wife have her spa time in the bathroom, it was pay divdends - at least that is what some guys have told me

[prarieboy]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

If one of them is dead, can you just try it on one for a week?

The second one is currently bypassed so we are on one right now. I was curious about other peoples experiences. So far we have had no issues.

[calgarygeologist]

We only have a 40 but will probably upgrade to a 50 when it comes time. 40 is enough for our family of 4. As someone else mentioned we do our laundry in cold water or warm water and I usually turn on the dishwasher when I go to bed. The demand at our place is pretty light.

[CroFlames]

After living in California for years, I am a stickler for saving water.

You all should be too. Not saying you aren't already, but you should conserve where you can. It's being a good global citizen

[FurnaceFace]

On demand system for us. Never run out of hot water. (there are pros and cons to the system but for our use it is good.)

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

After living in California for years, I am a stickler for saving water.

You all should be too. Not saying you aren't already, but you should conserve where you can. It's being a good global citizen

This may be really dumb of me, but what's the harm in using water in Calgary? I use it, it gets cleaned and flows right back into the Bow. I thought it wasn't really wasting water.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

After living in California for years, I am a stickler for saving water.

You all should be too. Not saying you aren't already, but you should conserve where you can. It's being a good global citizen

Why? Water is not destroyed after it is consumed.

[prarieboy]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

After living in California for years, I am a stickler for saving water.

You all should be too. Not saying you aren't already, but you should conserve where you can. It's being a good global citizen

I'd be lying if I said the looming Carbon Tax is not playing a part in this decision. One Tank would surely burn less gas that a two tank set-up.

[dobbles]

I'm no expert, but I can only assume a fair amount of chemicals and energy go into making the water clean enough to use at your house and then cleaning it to a sufficient level to let it go back into the rivers.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by FurnaceFace

On demand system for us. Never run out of hot water. (there are pros and cons to the system but for our use it is good.)

I also have just gone to on demand, love it and am saving a significant amount on my gas bill, but I think that is more due to the crappy nature of my old tank.

[BigNumbers]

I have an on demand system and it is effing amazing; Relatively constant temperatures, unlimited water, runs the shower (2x2GPM heads), the dishwasher and the washer at the same time.

I also love that my on demand has a recirc feature built in, so I have instant hot water upstairs, when in a normal house it could be 60+ seconds to get hot water!

Such a nice luxury. If you're replacing, I'd suggest tankless for the recirc (assuming that's retrofittable - i don;t have return lines from my taps, so I assume it is)

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by FurnaceFace

On demand system for us. Never run out of hot water. (there are pros and cons to the system but for our use it is good.)

Such as? Very interested in haring the pros and cons from someone who actually has one. I've had installers tell me not to bother which was somewhat surprising.

And should you be changing your username to tanklesswaterheaterface?

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

I also have just gone to on demand, love it and am saving a significant amount on my gas bill, but I think that is more due to the crappy nature of my old tank.

Just curious what your savings are? If I look at my August gas bill that would only include hot water as my furnace doesn't come on, it is under $5 of actual usage(before all the fixed fees). I'd need to save a lot on hot water to make that worth it. Or is gas a lot more in BC?

[aaronck]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Such as? Very interested in haring the pros and cons from someone who actually has one. I've had installers tell me not to bother which was somewhat surprising.

And should you be changing your username to tanklesswaterheaterface?

One came in the house I bought this year and I have the following thoughts-

Pros- Never run out of hot water
- Energy savings from what I have heard
- Mounts on the wall- small size compared to a tank

Cons- I seem to be always running the water to get hot water-because it is on demand as soon as you turn off the hot water it shuts down- If you're washing dishes for example, if you stop running the water for a few minutes, if you turn on the hot water again it's cold you need to run the water for 30-45 seconds to get hot water again- Very annoying
- Water only heats to 120, although I've heard with some jumper settings you can hack it to get hotter water.
-Cost- they run upwards of 5k installed

I think at the end of the day if it went down, I would think twice about shelling out 5k to get a new one, and would get a 50 or 60 gallon tank instead. Interested to hear other's opinions on this.