The things I'm learning.... a lot of it are things I really don't want to have to learn about. But I've got to, 'cause Kee has no interest in them - just finishing them off when they arrive by CanPar or Purolator or whatever....
Sidebar: I've gotten to know the various delivery people so well, from delivering to the school and the cottage, that I've had one, John, in for a tour when he brought me my shower unit for the green bath. He's come up the school walk so often with internet goodies that he usually stays to see what's behind Box No 13.....
Back to the learning curve... struggling between a tankless water heater and a modern, efficient traditional tank replacement.
The instantaneous tankless has no standby heat expense, a major plus - no heating the water 24/7 no matter how much or little we're using it - but there is the short cold water blurge that would have to be solved by a small 4 gallon gas heater attached to it... so basically we would have bought a new boiler, a new tankless water heater and a new small gas water heater. The Bosch units we're looking at are some of the larger units, to supply 3 baths, the dishwasher and the washer (although I do wash in cold 95% of the time). Right now, the estimate is around $3200/3500.
Our other option is replacing the oldoldold rustyrustyrusty electric heater with a modern, well insulated gas tank, hooking it up to the new furnace. So, the boiler fires the tank, shutting down heating the house very briefly as it does this. Not enough to noticeably chill the house in winter, less than 10 minutes, but there won't usually be a large hot water demand here in winter anyways. But in the late spring, summer and early fall, if things go well, there may be occasions when lots of hot water will be needed. The quote for this was around $2500 - another serious plus.
With the 2nd option, we heat the water from our already installed boiler - so we're not double boilering (for heat, for hot water).
With the 2nd option, although there's no provincial or federal rebates for a boiler, it's cheaper than installing the tankless+gas tank set-up and then getting the prov/fed rebate.
I'm leaning towards the traditional tank, insulated, efficient, slaved to the efficient boiler.
I hope I've crested this curve, at least this particular curve.
Now let's talk mortise door locks....... a bit later.
