From: Ron Hammon 
Newsgroups: hsv.general misc.consumers.house alt.home.repair
Subject: Re: anyone have a "tankless (hot) water heater"?
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2004 16:22:42 -0600

v wrote:
> 
snip

> Since you heat the same amount of water for use, what you save is the
> storage loss.  Now a gas hot water tank DOES have more loss than an
> electric one due to the "hole in the donut" up the middle.  But the
> only installations that I'd think would have that much storage loss,
> would be ones that use very little water but sit for a long long time.
> 

snip

The big, ol' tank is not the primary source of heat loss.  It is the
piping running for many yards in an unheated crawlspace, for example. 
When you open a hot water fauct and wait on the flow "get hot", this
demonstrates the lost heat.  Since heat loss is reduced as the pipes
cool down, I expect that things would actually IMPROVE with less hot
water use, not get worse.  (Of course, eventually, it would still cost
to maintain tank temperature with NO hot water use.  So, the "sweet
spot" is in the middle somewhere.)

-- 
Ron Hammon
Remove the "y" from ".nyet", when present, to reach me.