Tankless Water Heater for Heating Only

I have an oil fueled furnace that I’d like to convert to natural gas for a variety of reasons. I’m wondering if tankless water heaters have evolved enough to handle heating duties for a standard sized Bushwick townhouse. They’re significantly cheaper to buy and install than a regular furnace from what I’ve heard? I’ve read conflicting info on whether a permit is required or not for this replacement. I’d prefer to avoid getting the City involved. As far as shwoering….I’d probably prefer to keep my current regular hot water heater for showers. I’m very happy with it and don’t want to interfere with my guests (I specialize in long term airbnb for students/interns and long term city guests).

bush2fam

in General Discussion 5 years and 11 months ago

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Master Plvmber | 5 years and 10 months ago

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Adding a gas-fired device of any kind requires a permit. You can file it along with your oil-to-gas gas conversion. A tankless water heater worth its salt will require something like 200,000 BTUs, which you may not have available in your current gas meter and delivery piping. To make this less taxing on your gas meter, consider an indirect water heater or a smaller tankless hot water heater or boiler with a storage tank. Having some storage eliminates the need for an appliance to make hot water so rapidly.

alex | 5 years and 10 months ago

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There are Combo High Efficiency (tankless) boilers which can provide your hot water and heating. There are also models which only provide the heating. They save a lot of space and are more efficient that the Oil you currently use. A permit would be necessary in this situation most likely.

Best of Luck,

Alex Furini, RA
Furini Architects, PLLC

alex | 5 years and 10 months ago

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There are Combo High Efficiency (tankless) boilers which can provide your hot water and heating. There are also models which only provide the heating. They save a lot of space and are more efficient that the Oil you currently use. A permit would be necessary in this situation most likely.

Best of Luck,

Alex Furini, RA
Furini Architects, PLLC

eman12345 | 5 years and 11 months ago

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water heaters cannot legally be used for space heating in nyc…. there are HE boilers that can be used for that purpose

mozeeatupu | 5 years and 11 months ago

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Long term city guests are called tenants