Cost Differences Between Electric Tankless Water Heaters And Propane Storage Heater

Natural gas is a lot cheaper than propane and electricity. You can save a lot of money by changing from a propane storage heater to an electric tankless hot water heater... Consider the following example

In the previous article I showed you how you would save money byconverting from a hot water storage heater using propane gas to a tankless hot water heater using Natural gas . Some people still have an unanswered question regarding changing to an electric tankless heater for your water heating requirements.

The cost of the energy source for hot water heaters is very important bearing in mind that electricity generally is more expensive. But the cost of the energy unit is not the entire story and you will see that worthwhile savings can be made by changing from Propane storage heaters to electricity tankless hot water heaters

The energy factors of electric tankless and propane storage heaters differ...

Electric tankless (commonly known as on-demand hot water heaters) and propane gas storage heaters have different Energy Factor. Some gas hot water heaters can burn either natural gas or propane but generally they are constructed to run one or the other gaseous fuel.

The energy factor is important and is used to calculate the amount of energy wasted. Cost of gas used as $ per Therm (1 Therm is = 100,000 BTU) obviously is very important. Average US cost per Therm in Wisconsin in February 2004 was as follows (ref Jim O'Neale energy analyst contact tel (608) 266-8971 ....

Natural gas $0.922 per Therm (100,000 BTU)

Propane or LPG $1.366 per Therm

Heating Oil (for comparison) $0.972 per Therm

Electricity cost in Wisconsin is $0.0861 per kWhr

Be aware that these prices change monthly.

The range and average Energy Factors for Propane and Natural Gas hot water storage heaters are

Now just consider the following (very important) ....

Person number A buys the least efficient Propane Gas storage hot water heater and person number B buys the most efficient electric hot water tankless heater and they both use 65 gallons per day of hot water (152 Therms of gas at 100% efficiency or in kWhr terms this would be 152 x 29.3 = 4,453 kWhr per year)

Person A actually has to buy 152/0.46 = 330 Therms of Propane gas per year at $1.366 per Therm and spends $451 per year to heat hot water

and Person B actually has to buy 4453/.99 = 4,498 kWhr of electricity per year at 0.0861 per kWhr and spends $387 per year to heat hot water

Person B saves $64 per year on hot water heating bill by making the correct purchasing decision. Stated differently it can be generally said that purchasing a low efficiency tankless hot water heater using propane will cost you 15% more than using a high efficiency electric hot water tankless water heater.

This table below shows Energy factor difference between best and worst units for different types of tankless and storage tank hot water heaters. This table clearly shows that tankless hot water heaters are certainly more efficient than storage hot water heaters ... but do not forget that this is only one factor that will determine your final choice

You can read a wide range ofwater usage articles. They discuss the use of water in the house and home ... topics covered include filters, heaters, softeners and water in the garden.