Originally Posted by Texasgeezer

Good idea for the circulating pump.

Have you found the series of ' Matt Risinger ' videos on remodeling and new construction?

To me, he covers better ways to accomplish those tasks. A few cover tankless water heater considerations. One mentions how to plumb it to allow proper servicing in the future. This is important in hard water areas. Plus for servicing to drain water when an extended period of freezing might occur along with an extended power outage.

We'd like to have a new house built but fear the unexpected rise in cost of doing so.

For years we believed that using natural gas was best for energy cost, quick heat, and better control for cooking. Recently we've changed our opinion and will have an all electric home with an induction cooktop and convection oven. Induction appears to have quicker to temperature, more precise control, less wasted energy, no noxious gases, no explosion hazard, less chance of being burned, can be used as countertop space when needed, easy to cleanup due to flat surface and food spills that are burnt into the surface on resistive heat or on burners.

On electric tank heaters I use a few methods to extend the life and cost of operating.

1. Use aluminum anode rods and check every few years and replace if needed. Aluminum seems to reduce the chance of ' smelly water due to bacteria ' and the production of hydrogen gas that can occur from magnesium anodes.

2. Use the ' sand hog ' type heating elements that spread the heat over a larger surface area. This prolongs element life and significantly reduces sediment on the element that then flakes off and steadily buildups as mineral deposits on the bottom of the tank. I''ve never had to replace a burnt out sand hog element.

3. There are just two of us typically. I modified our electric tank water heater to have both elements on when heating and spreading the 240 volts across both elements. This will also greatly extend the life of the elements and further reduce the sediment buildup.
No problem with temperature of water since that is controlled by the same thermostat wired either way. Probably a significant reduction in ' back to temperature ' but she showers in the evening and I shower in the morning before shaving.

I expect doing these simple things will probably double the life of the water heater. Especially with most of the sediment buildup eliminated.