I’ve been doing a bit of research and found Gas Condensing Water heaters. Looks similar to a tank heater but recirculate the gas. Due to hit the market this year.
Supposed to be about as efficient as a tankless.
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=gas_cond.pr_gas_condensing
Are you referring to the tank vs. tankless comparison? Not sure, but I would imagine it was an older one. What exactly is the point you’re trying to make though?
Now that is interesting… happen to find out any info on pricing?
That’s a lot of down side for $20 a month, and I have to admit I’m a bit skeptical of that figure. I’ve got a pretty large tank hot water heater and in the summer my gas bills are in the 30-40 range since I don’t do budget billing. 2 adults plus bath water for a baby, my illegal high flow shower head, plus a gas stove. I doubt it’s going to knock $20 off a $35 gas bill.
No, I didn’t see anything on pricing.
The big box stores will discourage you from the tankless because they really can’t “handle” the installation of them.
I replaced mine with a standard hot water heater, but mine was a wet basement emergency replacement. :lol: I probably would have looked into doing the tankless setup.
X…
Do you guys think a tankless would be good for my office? Only fixture is one sink for the bathroom. Right now it’s such an old house (converted to office) the previous owner or whatever disconnected the hot water tank, so we have no hot water at all 
Thoughts?
just get an undersink tankless for your sink…
Cheap, runs off of a 115v line, easy to install with a single contact point.
It may be, but not in this case, as I told him I would be installing them myself. He wasn’t trying to talk me out of one, but just giving me the pros and cons of each and for my specific situation.
I’d imagine that places like this, that do installations, would love to install these since it takes very little effort, except a larger gas line and electric run to it, and they charge upwards of $1000-$2000 for just the installation.
ok cool 
thanks thom!
only time we design plumbing systems with these is for the undercounter units for field houses and such. havent heard of any problems with them. hwr is a must though for everything we do. i dont understand why someone would design any hotwater system without a return/recirc.
there are a lot of reasons not to, like when the farthest point of use is less than 25’ from the unit… There are a lot of other owners that love tankless and want them all over, like a school down here in Burleson that I am currently finishing up. They have a central boiler for the locker rooms, a geothermal hvac system, and tankless EVERYWHERE else, like 12kw units per restroom.
As I said I like my tankless but I have a small house with a limited number of fixtures. I won’t do a hot laundry load if I want to take a shower. I live alone so not a big problem.
My tankless runs on a standard 110 line on a dedicated circuit. House remodel (all new electric and plumbing) was done with tankless in mind thus the dedicated electric circuit and large propane line were put in place first. A retrofit would be more of a hassle.