Posted by Dave Thewlis on September 17, 2006 at 15:27:51 from 70.191.49.25 user dthewlis.
In Reply to: Re: Beckfoot Hot Water System posted by Eric Abraham on September 14, 2006 at 14:01:37:
On-demand water heaters are indeed very common in the U.K. where one tends to see them in bathrooms and in retrofitted showers in B&Bs (that is where we first encountered them).
We had one in a house we lived in from 2000-2003 here in California; it was an Aqua-Star, made by Bosch. Six years ago they were relatively uncommon here, but are becoming more popular. (You can generally figure out if something is becoming popular by calling repair shops and asking if they work on such-and-such.) With the tremendous increase in natural gas prices they more expensive to operate - but as Eric points out, with a regular water heater it will always keep the water hot and continue to use fuel.