Tank style or tankless water heaters for use with LP

With the warm weather I'm really considering shutting the AA down. It's a matter of heat in my garage that I don't need in the summer.

Our family is the typical four. Two men, one woman, and one girl that thinks she's 25 already. Previous to tying an indirect on with the AA we used a 30 gallon LP water heater. It's old, probably has less insulation than some of my long johns, and a pilot light. On top of that all is the fact that three of us shower between 7:15 and 8:00AM. The last person in usually isn't a happy camper when using the propane.

I'm wondering what you guys think of either a new tankless or just a new, more energy efficient tank style water heater. Electric is out of the question unless you own electric company stock here.

The big drawback I see with a tank style is the open center allowing heat to escape constantly. Could one put an electric operated damper on the exhaust to close when the burner is off?

Advantage of tankless - very efficienct condensing technology, unlimited hot water production

Disadvantage of tankless - limited flow ranges. More than 5 gpm a problem. High btu input. Expensive.

I have installed 2 Navien brand heaters. They are ok but very complicated inside. Tankless are not good with hard water.

Another option is higher efficiency tank type, direct vent, get a larger capacity storage tank to solve your running out of hot water. Put a 3 valve bypass around the AA for summer. Pipe the tankless coil as preheat (in series) for the tank. Put the mixing valve on the outlet of the tank.

Still running my Keystocker KA-6 for hot water. 2 adults- 1 infant....... with day care provided daily by an Aunt in our home. Running about 20 Lbs coal daily- sometimes less- sometimes more. Chimney draft is still working. Absolutely do not run out of hot water. . Boiler is in the basement and it's dry. Basement temp usually 72 degrees unless boiler is pushing alot. FULL tank of fuel oil down there and 2 year old Buderuos cold start boiler system that I AINT running. Might be crazy- might be dumb. I like it!

Conversion vs conservation = you would be better served to vent the boiler room with a larger yet low amp draw exhaust fan and window screens in some larger holes on the prevailing wind side of the space.

Steve, if you're not going to use that oil for years you might want to add some "killem" to keep bad things from happening to it.

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