More hot water

Kevin called me yesterday with updates on the options for upgrading my hot water to accommodate my spa shower. He actually priced things down to the penny, tax included.

Here are the options:

12,403.06

Replace my existing hot water tank with two tankless gas hot water heaters, including gas permitting and having Puget Sound Energy do the gas service upgrade.

9,965.66

Replace my existing tank with two tankless electric hot water heaters; requires electric service upgrade and still requires permitting, inspection, and work by Puget Sound Energy.

7,940.12

One tankless electric hot water heater added to my existing tank, adequate size to provide unlimited water for all the jets in the shower. Still requires electric panel upgrade.

1,917.50

A smaller electric tankless hot water heater added to the existing tank, small enough that it does not require an electric upgrade. This would limit me to shorter showers using all the jets, but enable unlimited showers if I turn the jets off.

Sadly, the only option I can afford to consider is this last one. Part of why I'm sad is that if I can't eliminate my tank, I don't get any power-saving benefit. And, of course, I don't get to hang out for a half hour or longer in the shower with an all-over body massage going on. But I think it's an acceptable compromise.

Kevin is coming over on Wednesday with the electrician to evaluate my service and determine what's the biggest tankless unit that could be added without requiring a service upgrade.

Meanwhile, I picked out carpet and bathroom tile this week, and I made my final decision on wood and drawer pulls for the vanity. I'm waiting to get a sample of the tile so then I can go to the fabricator for the vanity countertop and pick that out, but I have decided to go with manufactured quartz, probably Cambria.

And I am still torn in my choice for vanity lighting. Most of you have picked #4, and I love that one, except that it uses standard bulbs and I prefer halogen.

My other top choice right now is #5. I found a detail image, and I really like how it looks:

Compare with #4:


So I guess I'm just going to postpone my decision for a few more days.

Well I hope the work actually begins before too much longer, now that I've pretty much made all the decisions I can make that the work depends on. The hot water decision is the last big one. (They won't even manufacture the countertop until the vanity is in place and they can come out and measure.)

You can be sure I'll keep you posted. Meanwhile, let me know what you think about halogen versus standard lightbulbs, and #5 as opposed to #4.