If I could make changes to this house,
I would start by getting tankless water heaters for both sides of the duplex.
If both sides had them, both units would be saving on our FPL (Florida Power and Electric) bills every month, and that could add up to huge savings, almost 50%.
The biggest uses of electricity in both units is the air conditioning, and the heating of the water for showers, dishes, and laundry.
I've completely stopped using hot or warm water to do laundry, and noticed a drop in my bill by about 10%.
Our water heaters are old, OMG, so old, I swear they are the same ones that were originally installed in the 70's when the duplex was built.
They are small, so if Mark, who always takes the first shower of the day, takes a shower lasting longer than 7 minutes, then Sebastian only has enough hot water to last for 4 minutes.
I don't take my shower till after 9am, so by then, the water heater has had time to rebuild it's supply back up.
But if we went tankless, it would create hot water on demand, the second shower of the day would be just as hot as the first, when doing the dishes, I wouldn't start going cold before getting to the silverware, and if I needed to wash in warm or hot, there would be hot water no matter what time of day.
In the long run, it would make both units more energy efficient, and a selling point to any new renters in the future.
And if the landlord chose to sell the unit, they would also be a huge selling point and he could ask for a bit more money.
My biggest thing though is saving on the electric bill.
AC is a must here, and so those summer bills can be really, really pricey.
Being able to lower the bill by just changing out the old and outdated water heater, would make a nice improvement, and lower my bills.
I know my neighbors would like it too.
She is always complaining that there is never enough hot water for the whole family to take showers when they have plans to go out.
