My son suggested that these would be a good idea - with a regular water heater you are heating water all day and probably only use it in the morning to take a shower. Does anybody know anything about them. They would surely save you loads of money on your utility bills because they provide hot water on demand rather than wasting money heating water all day.

Are they as good as they sound?

Spoke with a couple of plumbing people here in Calgary and they don't recommend them for Calgary.

They said the water temperature in Calgary is too cold most of the year, and a tankless system can't raise the temperature high enough for average use specifically dishwashers.

I think it might work but you would need a very high end system, read expensive.

No idea what Regina water temp is right from the tap but I measured ours a few weeks ago and it's only 38° F.

we have a tankless hot water system ( a renine) it is great and you can set the tempreture to whatever you like.Ours is boiling when it comes out and we live not far from Calgary.It takes 7 seconds to get hot!!!

Would that be Rinnai?

http://www.rinnaitanklesswaterheaters.ca/

I guess Steve got one answer but you have obviously tried one and it works for you.

yeah that how you spell it LOL!!!!!
yeah we have one of those

I suspect everyone coming from the UK is very familiar with these I always though the hot water tank system here seemed inefficient - but hey, it works here and the tankless systems are only recently being discussed as an option as far as I can tell.

The Canadians may take some convincing with this new fangled idea So, in all seriousness, just keep talking to a number of plumbers till you find people happy and competent and convinced in the sales pitch.

My last apartment had one, not sure of the brand but it worked great. I am in BC and my water temp from the tap is normally in the 40'sF in summer and high 30'sF in winter, so I can't imagine Calgary water being much colder.

I wouldn't think we get much colder than 38°F water here in Calgary but that still requires a rise of 82°F to get the water to 120°F that's beyond the recommended upper limit of most tankless system which seems to be a rise of 75°F

Still if it works for people that's fine.

I'll stay with the tank for now.

I fitted an on-demand hot water system when I built a new home here a couple of years ago. It's linked to the underfloor heating system, and is far more efficient than having a tank of hot water on permanent stand-by for use.

<but can you get tankless block heaters?>

Yes...just plug 'em in without installing them.

Oh sorry that would be a blockless block heater.

They'd be no use for us as we'd have to go for a propane powered one, and the propane price was much too high to make it financially viable when we looked into it (not sure whether that's changed since?)

What we're doing instead - and would probably work even better where you are - is installing solar water heating. You still have the electrically heated hot water storage tank, so you're not reliant on clear skies, but apart from in the Winter, the water feeding that tank is generally hot enough to not need any further heating.

The merits of tankless heaters have been debated endlessly on home improvement forums. In my opinion for most of North America they are a solution looking for a problem. Some posters above have commented about the "inefficiency" of a tank. For one thing, they are not inefficient. The standby loss from a modern, highly insulated tank is very low. And even if the standby loss were more than tiny, where does the lost heat go? Into the house... which is where you want it most of the time in Canada. If you want to spend the money for one of these things, go ahead. Regular tank heater for me, please.

Well, my son found one at Home Depot for $1,500 so I don't think we are going to race out and get one any time soon. But it did sound like a great idea.

With a cost at $1500 for a tankless system you would see a good return in savings. A Water heaters life expectancy is about 8-10 Years (Max) and a small 150L tank costing about $800 (GVRD Prices).
Tankless systems can go on for at least 20 years, and parts can be replaced.
Just on the sytems you would be saving money.