Power Vent Vs. Electric Water Heater.

osborn

I am working on some affordable housing rehabs. The question has come up, use powervent or electric? The HO's will be lower income families. I am putting a powervent into my first rehab. Another contractor told me they need serviced regularly and I should use electric. The furnace will be 95%, so using a Bvent for the hotwater only isnt worth relining the chimney. So now we are trying to spec the hot water heater for the rest of the jobs. Lets hear some opinions.

JamesNLA

When you say "power vent" do you mean a tankless water heater?

osborn

High eff. water heater. with pvc vent.

JamesNLA

OHHHH, I know what your talking about...sorry, I typically only do tankless heaters, but I did see one of those somewhere recently, I know crap about them.

I can tell you a tankless heater will cost a heck of a lot more to get installed (unit - materials - labor) verses a tanked, but the tankless units are a lot more effecient, meaning lower gas bills for the residents. Also, and I'm just ASSuming here, that there would be a high number of people living in the unit, the tankless won't run out of how water. That may be something to consider.

With an annual maintaince manufacturers are claiming 20-25 years of operation verses about 10 for a tanked.

However I can't say I have ever seen tankless heaters installed in LI properties. I did do an APT building once, I tied 2 units together which served 6 units, I guess it was low income....the area was a dump. But that was for the benefit of the landlord, he paid the gas bill for the HWH, so he wound up saving money in the long run....

gmp

How are you thinking? Installation for you now? Or down the road...
Depends. I would say electric now, that way it makes it easier and cost efficient down the road for replacement. Most of the time I am for gas water heating, but sometimes I have to think about replacement costs for the homeowner down the road. And that is where an electric model comes into play

osborn

Down the road. Is the powervent going to give the family problems? As in servicing it?

gmp

Not necessarily. I have seen many continue a hassle free life. But...there is always the possibilty of things to go wrong. There are more items on that water heater that can become in-operative, and also finding someone who has knowledge to diagnose the problem and repair it

Eric_2007

I agree with James - it's much better in the long run to go with a tankless. Check out houseneeds.com for more info...

Eric_2007

Also electric requires a tremendous amount of juice to opporate - Natural Gas is much cheaper and better!!!