There are different types of heat tracing. I used constant wattage in my system, and can't comment on other types. Aptly named, it produces heat with no limit, thus the need for control(t-stat)...exactly like your water heater. Memory isn't good, so I can't give prices (my system is over 10 years old)but IIRC, there is a minimum footage purchase (10' maybe)and then per/ft. cost. Insulation cost is a wash- any system should be insulated. My system is designed to maintain a temp. just under the heater setpoint. The longer the insulation maintains static condition the less power used. Cost for my system with expensive, quality pipe insulation was well under a circ. pump. Installation requires no plumbing, but does require minor electrical skills if power isn't nearby. Installing the trace and insulating will take longer than installing a pump (without return line- which could extend time considerably), but is not skilled work, simply conscientious. My situation has 20' of trace,@5W/ft. At the old kWh rate (just increased), operating costs were penny/hour. Note the system does not operate continuously. Circ. pumps consume power starting at ~400W, 4x my consumption, though of course they are intermittent duty too.

This post might be old but id like to respond. HI, Big Bias I'm seeing here... I would like to show some transparency so people know the actual costs. I would also like to note that i'm not including Markup to pay for things such as both types of insurance working and worker, Municipal licencing, Over head for a shop, Gas and insurance for a vehicle, the time it takes to order products as well as picking up/ delivering products. Expect a mark up of 26-37% on everything to pay for these items. If it's a Small one man company out of their home figure on the low end. If it's the largest plumbing company in the district expect to pay more. On the flip side they may get a bigger discount on the unit and hide that mark up in the unit it's self. My location is Alberta Canada, So keep in mind CND$$$. A typical 40-50Gallon Natural Draft hot water tank is 36-50k BTU's . A Rheem or Renai or Navian tankless is typically 140-205K BTU's . The Tankless will need a larger gas line. Usually needing permits. In my Jurisdiction The inspector gives a 4 hour window for inspection. So you'll be paying for a plumber for 4 hours. On top of that Tankless units DO NOT use the same venting as a Natural draft old style water tank. Thus a Venting inspection by the same inspector. Permit needed. So you will be changing two Major components of your homes "gas" and "venting" systems. Typical install time is about 4-6 hours. This includes, Turning off the water supply, Draining the house and tank, Unhooking the venting, Unhooking the old water supply. Then Mounting the new unit to a wall or Optional Metal rack carrier, Running new water supply lines complete with new valves and possibly a new Humidifier valve if the old one was above the hot water tank. Once the new lines are run, then they can Cap the old Vent. In some Jurisdictions this vent may be removed all together with a general contractor removing and capping the roof. Again more permits needed in this case. After the old venting is capped. then running new venting out of the side of the house. which has to be 12" from other venting or 3' from any opening door window or gas meter. If it's an older home you'll need to hire a Coring contractor to Core a hole through the Cement foundation. If the home uses TGI joists you can typically exit through there. Once the venting is complete the contractor can move on to the gas line. Cutting gas to the home for up to a couple hours Hopefully using "lock out tag out procedure" IE locking the riser while they work. They will open the outside of the gas line close to the meter Then Purge. Meaning to leave it open to air for 10 minutes. Some companies use a manual pump from the inside to push the gas outside. Once purged properly the contractor can start to take the gas line apart to add a tee. Remember he was supposed to "Size the gas line" at the time of Estimate to make sure your home has a large enough line for the added BTU's If he doesn't show the inspector this Calculation he could instantly fail inspection even if he did a good job. Most contractors will install a hard Tee then run Flex CSST Gas line or "Gas Tite" similar product. Once the gas is hooked up they do another purge the other direction. removing air from the line from the outside in. once gas is at the fixture it's time for commissioning. another 20 or so minutes till he's done. In my Jurisdiction the venting materials are to be Gas 636 PVC piping minimum. In multi unit dwellings it will need to be a higher spec. Cost of venting materials depends on length but the average is about $210 2" Double that for 3". Parts, correct type of glue Primer and glue. (the inspector checks), 2 45's 4 90's , 2 couplings, TY, 4 lengths of pipe. Seems rare to have an up and out easy unit. but costs obviously for that $60 or so depending on elbows needed. Gas permit $212.65 Materials gas $85.00 15' CSST, CSST adaptors, Nipples, Black 1 1/4 x 3/4 tee, Tape, jet lube, Materials Venting $210 4" B-vent Cap, 636 pvc piping & elbows Optional Rack $310 1/2" Plywood and screws $32.00 6 hours labour $510 Inspection time say we're lucky and only wait 2 hours $170 Owner supplied Tankless install 1219.65 Navian NPE-240A Wholesaler price $3044.22 Including Service kit. Some companies may get a higher discount through volume. Navian NPE-240A Amazon price 2800.00 No service kit https://www.amazon.ca/Navien-NPE-240A-Premium-Condensing-Tankless/dp/B00FAMAB2U/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_60_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=P40Z2FYMVNSYE4DJ1A24 Also don't be fooled when it says 1/2" gas line the actual fitting is 3/4" it's just saying they have a special valve inside that allows for lower gas flow but in turn the burner does not run at full capacity. Total Canadian Dollars $4263.87 Transparent Fair pricing

I installed a tankless 6 years ago and will never install a tank again. I did it myself and will do it again if I am ever in a new house. I have a 120k Noritz unit that performs flawlessly. I just don't get it guys. Installing a tankless without recirc is like trying to start your car with a half dead battery. Really! "Your builder is right, it defeats the purpose of tankless" nonsense! I did not have recirc initially. I learned by experience you do not just replace a tank with a tankless. It is a bad result for hot water supply. Slow and inconsistent. Internal recirculation tanks might help but never having used one I have no opinion. But unless you circulate water and insulate your pipes to maintain the heat you are really missing the boat. Recirculating inside the heater means your pipes are cold and it takes longer to get to a tap because unlike a tank there is no pressure in the lines to radiate towards the taps. Why store water inside your heater when you need the heat in the pipes for faster delivery? That is just a limited solution to the issue in my opinion. How much does it cost to keep the lines hot. Depends on heat loss and vol. of water in the lines. Insulate!!! I would say my pipes take very little in cost to keep hot. Maybe $5-7 a month. I used 3/4 inch pipe for recirculation to store more water for start up and to feed 110 degree water into the heater. I do not have a timer to shut off recirculation at night so I could save a few bucks if I did that. Its a simple thing to lay out. You go to the last tap in the system and put a return to the heater from there. You need to have a cold water supply for the recirculation. A one way check valve between the recirc and the street supply prevents hot water from pumping back to the street as hot water pressure rises. A second check valve goes between the last tap and where the street supply feeds the recirc line to prevent cold water pressure from the street from back flowing through the hot water lines. Why any builder would not just put a return line back to the heater is beyond me. Its really not a lot of extra work. Especially with all the cheap Pex being used now. A small grundfos 1/25th hp pump is all that is needed in most cases. I use a Honeywell aquastat to trigger the pump. The pump engages maybe once an hour for maybe a minute to raise the water temp from 105 to 110. Heat loss? Did you insulate the pipes you say are losing heat from? You can lnstall a timer to turn off recirc in the night so you use no energy at all. You can do the same during the day when you are not at home. For some families you could have a daily timer that changes recirc to match your schedule. The hot water works with the recirc off, it just does not work properly as iz well known. Tankless is a superior technology. I did not think the endless supply would matter to me, its noticeably better. A tank cools as soon as you start using water out of the tank and cold water replaces it. The temp drops and drops the longer it flows. A tankless heats water on demand and it is maintained at the same temp. Its really is an advantage. But, as has been stated here by users, un managed hot water supply sucks and who cares if it costs a little bit of money to heat and pressurize your pipes so hot water is instant. Its way less expense than keeping 40 gallons of water hot in a tank. I would never heed the advice by someone on this thread that you don't need recirc. Have your builder install a true full house recirculation system. Don't pay attention to this "you don't need it stuff." If the builder balks or talks down to the idea get someone who knows what they are doing to come install it and over ride their obstinate attitude. Just do not listen to the talk of having a better system is not needed. You are going to great expense to have the best hot water supply you can have. Don't let someone with out your best interests in mind wreck your enjoyment of a great tankless system. Recirc all the way!!! Gee people, why would anyone not do this in new construction when its way easier to do.

Thanks for your reply. Location: We live a little north of Houston, TX It does freeze here, but not very often and usually not a hard freeze. When it does freeze, it generally warms up to over 32 during the day and then might freeze again at night. Last year we had a few 15 degree nights where it did not warm up for a few days, so it was below freezing for maybe 4 or 5 days. That is unusual. There have been lots of years where there is no freeze or only a very mild one for the whole winter. Showers at the same time? I'd say 1, 2 and sometimes 3. Probably averaging 2. We have 4 kids, but since they are in school sports, they shower at school during the week. It would be unusual for everyone to be bathing at once, I don't think that has ever happened. My girls share a bathroom and also my boys share a bathroom. They told me that if they shower back-to-back, the second person runs out of hot water if the first person took a long one. There is a big soaking tub in the master bathroom, but it is not used very often, maybe twice a month. Other info that may or may not be helpful: - we currently have 2 regular hot water heaters. One of them serves 3 bathrooms and one serves the master and an office/guest bathroom. - we have a really nice master shower, and we both tend to spend more time in there than we should. When it was a crappy shower, we were in and out in just a few minutes because it was so nasty. Now that it's nice, we tend to linger longer. - the house is really wide, so there is a lot of distance for the water to travel. I think that's why one of the plumbers said he'd recommend 2 units, and one recommended the extender thing (which I don't remember what he actually called it - it might have been a recirculating pump, but I'm not sure). - there are 5 bathrooms, but one is a 3/4 downstairs that serves as a powder room and only gets showered in if we have a bunch of guests. - we don't usually have a bunch of guests, so there are not that many times when there are extra people showering. - we have a whole house water softener. - I got lots of different answers about how long we'd wait for hot water. We wait now however long it takes for the cold water to run through the pipes and for the hot water to arrive. So waiting is not really a big deal. But I got lots of confusing input from the plumbers about the wait time. - I asked all the plumbing companies about leaks, auto-shut off, drip pans, etc. I got all manner of different answers ranging from: it can still leak and not stop, thereby ruining the house; it can leak but the drip pan will catch it and an alarm will go off to alert you; the drip pan will catch it and it will automatically shut off; etc, etc. I want to eliminate the many gallons of hot water sitting on top of my head while sleeping, that's the main motivation for thinking about changing to tankless. - I finally do understand recirculating pumps (I think), but that also seems like a potential damaging leak situation since the pipe that the recirculating is happening in seems like it is essentially your new "tank" in your tankless system. Unless it is doing it's recirculating on top of a big drip pan with an auto-off function, I don't see this as providing an advantage over my current tank heaters.