I'm currently renovating my bathroom and need to decide between a new tankless water heater and a modern water heater tank. My old boiler from 2005 finally gave up the ghost. Which one makes more financial sense, especially since I live alone and don't use much hot water?
For you alone, a tankless water heater is the better choice - you'll save on both upfront costs and ongoing energy expenses. A storage tank constantly heats water even when you're not home, and with low consumption that's just wasteful. A tankless heater only heats the water you actually need right now, and it has no standby losses.
Price-wise, tankless heaters are significantly cheaper than modern storage tanks - a good electronic tankless heater costs less than half the price. Your monthly costs will also be lower with minimal water consumption, and your savings grow even more the less you use. Storage tanks only make economic sense for multi-person households or when you need extremely high flow rates (multiple showers in quick succession).
The one small downside: tankless heaters need a decent electrical line - depending on the model, 18 to 24 kW. If your installation can't handle that, it's a problem. But if it works out, you'll save the most money over the years.
it's not quite that simple because it really depends on how you use it. a tankless water heater is cheaper to run when consumption is low, but if you need hot water multiple times a day (showering, washing dishes), you lose a lot of energy through the heating-up time and flushing out the cold water. a modern storage tank with good insulation keeps heat loss way lower today than it used to be - some barely lose anything overnight. my tip: look at how often you use hot water daily and ask the specialty store about the energy labels for both units, then the calculation becomes clearer.
For people living alone with low hot water consumption, an instantaneous water heater almost always pays off. The decisive point: a storage tank continuously loses heat, even when you don't need hot water at all. That costs energy every single day, even at night or when you're on vacation.
My tip would be to check your actual usage patterns. Do you only need hot water for showering, or also in the kitchen? With an instantaneous heater, you only pay for the water you actually use - no standby losses. The purchase costs are significantly lower, and installation is straightforward. The only real downside: with an instantaneous heater, the water can be cold at first until hot water arrives. With multiple simultaneous water draws (shower + kitchen), some units can perform weaker, but as a single person, that shouldn't be a problem.
A modern storage tank only makes sense if you need a lot of hot water several times in a row in the mornings, or if your water pipes are super long and you otherwise have to wait ages for hot water to arrive. In your situation, I'd honestly go for an instantaneous water heater - cheaper to buy and over the years, cheaper in terms of energy consumption too.
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