It's been over six months now since we got a tankless water heater installed, so we have a little hindsight now.  While we had somewhat of a mixed experience, we are generally happy that we chose it.

For those who are unaware, tankless or "on-demand" water heaters work by heating your home's water when you turn on the tap, rather than keeping gallons of water at the desired temperature all the time.  They are much more efficient overall, which can result in a lot of savings, since water heating is a big part of one's utility bill.  While they have been popular in other countries for years, they are just starting to be noticed in the United States.

Here are the main issues... 

Pros

• Cost savings in natural gas usage.
• $300 federal tax credits are available for them starting this year.
• You can never run out of hot water.
• Environmentally sound.
• Much longer lifetimes than conventional water heaters.
• Much smaller than a regular tank heater.
• Doesn't have the same risk as a tank heater busting and causing significant water damage.
• Don't have to shut off for vacations (but very easy to shut off if you're paranoid).
  

Cons

• Takes longer for hot water to reach the tap, resulting in wasted water.
• Much more expensive than a conventional heater (we paid about $840 for the heater itself).
  
• Requires a Category III venting system (stainless steel), which is very expensive.
• Louder than a tank heater, but not a big deal.
• The heater will only remain on if you have a big enough flow of hot water.  Usually this isn't a problem, but we've gone below the threshold if we have our low-flow showerhead on its lowest setting and the water not particularly hot.
• The amount of hot water generated at once is limited.  I don't think we've experienced this problem, but running the dishwasher, washer, and shower at the same time might result in one of them getting cool water.
• Uses more gas at a time, which may necessitate a thicker gas pipe.  We just used the existing one and haven't had any problems, but this may be limiting its capacity.
  

We got the Takagi T-K2, and had it installed by a local plumber.  A friend of mine had one and had a good experience with it (after returning a lower-capacity T-K1).  I was looking for something with high enough BTUs, high efficiency, and a low minimum flow.

The biggest gotcha (and surprise) by far was the venting.  Technically, you may be able to get away with using normal venting, but tankless water heaters are unique in having code requirements for better venting.  Apparently the issue with the tankless heaters running hotter than tank heaters, which can result in condensation in the venting.  Because we have a Victorian house with a high roof, this cost us a lot more money.

We did gain a closet out of the deal, though.  Particularly when we found the cost of the venting, we decided to move the heater into our attic, which freed up a whole closet for storage (Victorians also tend to have limited storage space).  The heater came with a  remote we can use from our main living area.

Overall, I'm glad we went for it...

It's hard to believe that Madeleine was born over a month ago!  But she's been racking up the experiences.  She's met all her grandparents now, taken her first stroller ride, gone to mass (at three different parishes), and has done a lot of sleeping, eating, grunting, and stretching.  We've just posted photos of her third and fourth week...

We've added some photos of Madeleine's second week.  We also moved the photos from the first week to their own page, and added some new ones.  Check them out!

We haven't had any problems with raccoons since we got our chickens a year and a half ago.  But a couple nights ago, a raccoon went after them in the coop. 

We had actually gotten pretty lax, and forgot to latch the door to the nest boxes.  I heard the dog in the yard behind us barking pretty loudly, and then some really loud squawking.  Luckily, we were around and in earshot.  I turned on our backyard light and ran out on the deck, scaring it enough that it retreated to our side fence, where I saw it.  (Ann was nursing Madeleine through all of this.)

I went back inside to grab a flashlight, and it had moved to the tree just next to the coop.  I stared it down for a while, and then decided to spray it with water from a hose (I got it pretty good).

I later found a pawful of feathers just outside the coop (see the photo).  Looks like they came from one of our chicken's necks...yikes!  Otherwise, the chickens seem to be just fine.  Needless to say, we'll be more vigilant now about keeping the coop locked every night...