Gas is VERY cheap here, thanks in part to the $345/yr in customer/meter charges. During summer we use about 15 therms @ 50 cents per therm. $7.50/mo pays for water heater, dryer, stove, grill. Lets say $5 of the gas bill per month is for the water heater ($60/yr) and a tankless saves half ($30/yr). A quality tankless costs $1,200 to install once SS venting or a condensing model is purchased. A tank water heater is $400. Tankless lasts 20yrs vs. 10yrs for a tank (although my current tank is 15yrs old). Over 20yrs you would spend $1,200 vs $800 in water heaters and save $600 in gas. Net savings for tankless $200 over 20yrs, or about $10/yr on a $1,200 investment.
Do a like the idea of tankless, the space they save, and think they are cool? You betcha. Are they a good investmnet? Not so sure. You can thank the fact we pay a good portion of our energy costs in our taxes instead of utility bills for the lack of ROI on tankless water heaters. If energy costs were more closely tied to use tankless starts making a lot more sense. Perhaps that's why they are so popular in the rest of the world.
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