There's a couple angles to consider.

- An electric water heater is the only way to go truly "net zero"

- You can power it with solar panels

- Your gas company might have a high fixed charge (e.g. I pay $20/mo just for the hookup)

- Routing gas lines & exhaust can get expensive and quickly wipe out fuel savings

- Cutting gas service completely eliminates combustion concerns. No worries about combustion air, no carbon monoxide, etc.

- Electric might still be the service of the future; electric appliances are a bet on renewables

Now, a tankless electric can also get expensive if you wind up needing to upgrade your electric service. Which is why I ultimately went from tanked gas to tanked electric.

>An electric water heater is the only way to go truly "net zero"

Typically electricity are the worst in places where this is a meaningful benefit to consumers because the state usually has policies about sourcing its electricity that take environmental impact into account in such a way that price is driven through the roof.

Paying a premium for green energy is the best thing states can do to discourage conversion from fossil fuels to electric power.

$20/month just for a hookup sounds crazy. In California I pay around $20/month total for both gas and electric (and specifically renewables coming from the grid). I'm not sure if there are other utilities available in you area, but it sounds like you're getting ripped off.

There's just the one choice for me. The per-therm price is really low so it's fine in the winter, but now that the furnace is the only thing on gas, I wonder if I can suspend service over the summer.

Tankless electric is generally an awful choice. Use a heat pump instead. It’s several times more efficient and more polite to the grid.

Not that tankless electric is any better in this regard, but the selection of heat pumps has been dwindling precipitously because despite their small cost adder, their economics are still not very compelling. Which seems really unfortunate.

Actually, the whole water heating business seems to be like this. All kinds of way better tech than an old fashioned 82 AFUE open flue tanked, at really minor cost increases, but the cost of water heating in the first place just isn't that terribly high.

In the end the most significant cost savings on my water heater replacement project, turned out to be the space heating savings from closing the old atmospheric vent & combustion air vent.

I’m in the process of doing both at once. I’m getting rid of a non-sealed crappy inefficient heater and replacing it with a 95%+-efficient sealed combustion, combined heat-and-hot-water boiler.

Do you have online resources to recommend for a beginner looking to learn more about these topics, in order to make educated choices on future house projects?

Solar (with US tax incentives) brings the cost of electricity to about the same as natural gas.

I ended up going with an electric heat pump hot water tank.

I do have natural gas service, but I'd rather put my money into assets (solar panels) than consumables (utility services).

Not at all. A negligible increase in total cost compared to the amount it costs to build a house. You can search Home Depot's site for models.

I think he was referring to operating costs.

Ah, makes sense. Tankless gas is a cheaper ongoing way to go in the US then, though installation costs may be higher since you might need a larger diameter gas line put in.

Correct