Had quite a day,

'cause I started out the day with a large leak at our hot water heater. Had had probloms with the cold water fitting, so I replaced it, as well as the copper hot water line. Kind of a pain with all the soldering, etc. Bottom line, that wasn't the problem. The interior of the HWH is old/rusted/leaking, and we need a new HWH. Was gonna replace it, BUT, started looking at a tankless HWH, and spent nearly the entire day researching gas vs elec, different brands, the local building code, speaking w/a manufacturers rep, plumber, electrician, Uncle Al, Home Depot and Lowes people and learned A LOT about tankless HWH's. It will cost about twice as much initially, but the payback should be complete within 4-5 years, since a tankless doesn't waste $$ keeping 50 gals of water hot, all the time, in case you need it. Wasted a half hour with XCEL Energy who had a double rebate in place, but ONLY if you used a natural gas HWH, which I don't want for several reasons, but this has gone on too long already. Will let you know how it goes, and if either of my readers has anythiing worthwhile to add, would love to hear it.