Do I have a tankless water heater?

Question

I inherited this house when my Father passed. When I started poking around I noticed I could not find the water heater. Anywhere! Now, there is a large unit of some kind in the attic. It looks to be fairly new. It's not the central units, they are both outside. While watching a home remodeling show on TV I noticed this unit being installed, a tankless water heater. It looks almost exactly like what's in my attic. I didn't go as far as climbing around in the attic to see if it had any labels on it, the attic is very small and it's pretty hard to get to. But since I seem to have no blessed water heater, is it a good bet I have a tankless in my attic?

Answer 1

It is interesting that it would be in the attic but if it has pipes coming out on both sides and has shutoff valves with them, you are pretty accurate that this would be your water heater even though the best place for it is near your furnace to keep the heater at a constant temperature. If your attic is not heated you might want to consider having it moved. These "On-demand" water heaters are great but they do not take to the temperature changes very well

Answer 2

It's hard to say what you'd actually save on the utilities, but you would save something. You'd also save some space. You'd never run out of hot water. And they last longer than a tank water heater. $900 is the absolute cheapest price for an installed tankless I've ever heard - it's a little less than the cost of a good unit by itself. Note that the better units are from Noritz, Takagi, or Rinnai.

Answer 3

Most tank type water heaters are just that they have a tank that the heating element electric, or the burner gas heats the water in the tank everytime the water goes below your set temp. Most of these are in a basement or utility room. tankless water heaters heat water on demand and are usally mounted close to the wateroutlets.

Answer 4

hard to tell. usually tankless water heaters have control panel boxes in rooms that use water, such as bathroom. this allows the owner to control how hot they want the water. if you have one of those then yes. also, tankless water heaters must have a source of gas (propane or natural).

if you said yes to both questions then i'd call the gas company that provides your gas and inquire if they installed.

Answer 5

If you cant find a water heater and you have hot water then it could be the tank less water heater. It could also be your Air Handler or Furnace. Tank less water heaters are small. Nothing like the conventional water heaters you are used to seeing.

Answer 6

Look for where the water comes from and see if you can see if it goes around the general area, and or all the way up to the unit, sound like your right.

Answer 7

What type of heat do you have in the house? If you live up my way, you probably have a gas or oil fired boiler and you might get your hot water directly from the boiler.

Answer 8

wee, you may need to check the plumber

Answer 9

could be

follow your pipes

Answer 10

no