I've been having a thought on hot water. It would seem to me, that a tanked heater is inherently inefficient. My father has tried to explain to me that the incoming cold water is heated by the hot water already in the tank, which while being true, wouldn't it still require the same energy to maintain the temperature of the tank while cold water is rushing in, as it would be to heat the water on demand in a tankless unit? And then you have to maintain the temperature of the tank during periods of non-use...
I'm using tankless to describe a non-centralized strategy, with individual heaters at the points of demand, say one per bathroom, one for the laundry room, etc.
I figure that the tankless units would at least as much, and possibly just slightly more power than the central unit when supplying hot water, but would offer large savings during periods of non-use, which by my estimates is roughly ~23 hours daily.
Anyone happen to have such a setup and would be willing to tell how it works out?
