I’m not tankless...conventional tank WH. I don’t,understand the issues,with solder joints. Is it because they are held at a higher temperature for many hours?
It’s a trade-off:
Lots of cold water dumped down the drain while waiting for the hot water to arrive...
Vs...
Extra electricity consumed to run the recirculating pump and extra heat loss in the recirculating system (more natural gas consumed).
not real sure on the joint thing, just something i read
my water runs about 12gal per minute so prolly ~2gal to get hotwater to the kitchen but, i have never in the 18 years i’ve been here hit the limit on tier one water usage rate bumping me to tier two
and with tankless, i’d need some kind of holding tank for re-circulation and the unit would run constantly so that’s out
a friend uses baseboard heat and runs his hotwater in the winter time from it and a tank in the summer