ok,, heres a question,,, I currently have an electric hot water heater,,, working good. This year,,I can get propane,, fro 67.9 a gal,, of course Im filling up. The only thing I have that uses propane, is the furnace. I know the stove and the water heater are energy pigs. But they came with the house. I could afford to replace the water heater this year,, but dont know if its cost effective. I shut the WH off, when not in use,, at night,, and when Im not here. What do you think? Save energy,, or,, if its not broken,, dont fix it ??

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), August 31, 2001

Answers

Stan, I'm in the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" camp on this one. While there may be some savings in switching over now it just seems wasteful to discard your used, working equipment. The water heater might be worth doing depending on it's age as they're not that much money but I'd definitely hold off on the stove. It can't use that much power and will be a lot more money to replace. This is just my opinion based on my own tightfistedness. Good luck. I hope this helps.

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), August 31, 2001.

Why pay to fix something that is working. If its not costing you that much to use then dont fix it. When it does go belly up, maybe you should look at instant on rankless heaters.Soulds like these may work for you.

-- gary (gws@redbird.net), August 31, 2001.

Ok..you know when those things go bad.....at the worst time possible. and by then the price of a kwatt & propane [winter] has gone up! Now you've got the time to shop / order [ tankless / on demand, very good idea ] and install without being in a panick. Thats a good price for propane...here it's 104.9!--but come winter.....Ok so what kind of an answer to your question did you expect from a person who lives with and installs PV & Wind systems!!!

-- Jim-mi (hartalteng@voyager.net), August 31, 2001.

Stan, you say the stove and hot water heater came with the house. How old does that make them and what type of wear are they getting? You might want to find out what the life expectancies of your appliances are, then decide from there.

-- Sheryl in Me (radams@sacoriver.net), August 31, 2001.

When it quits working change it to solar heated. An electric heater can easily be converted to solar for about the same cost as a new one fueled other ways.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), August 31, 2001.

Our electric WH is pretty new but when it dies, I think we'll switch to propane...cheaper and when electric out, we'd still have hot water.

-- DW (djwallace@ctos.com), August 31, 2001.