Cost of instantaneous water heater and infrared heater

I myself have also had an apartment with DLE. But you will never find anyone who has a separate meter for the DLE. That is the only way to determine exact consumption. And then it has to be marked with a 300% deviation, since every person and every family is different (number of people, duration of showers, number of showers, hot water kitchen, bathtub vs. shower, etc.) I would have estimated my costs there – not showering daily because of sports and others – at 200-250€ as a single.

That is by far the highest value I have heard for a DLE, and despite not showering daily at home? That would be 3000€/year, can hardly be true, right? And a single household too if I understand correctly? For a family with 3 kids, that would be a whopping 15,000€ / year... But that is why I explicitly ask for experience values, so you get a feeling of what the actual costs are, more than a feeling it isn’t, since everyone showers differently, but the coaster calculation is also far from reality, if I take what you read on the internet and make an average out of it. If several people now report such experiences, I think the costs are indeed higher than assumed.

Closing word: no worries, hot water with DLE is an expensive affair if used frequently. But not necessarily more expensive than with gas.

I live in my house with a gas boiler (not even condensing, a really ancient boiler) and 4 people and my gas costs are not even close to that high. It is really not easy to make the right decision there.

Stiftung Warentest tested el. instantaneous water heaters in 09/2023 and also found that they incur higher costs than, for example, heat pumps. However, it was also mentioned that you need a water storage tank in the basement for this. They assumed 41 liters/model person per day of water consumption and 40 cents/kilowatt hour. In 10 years, this amounts to about €2,000 per person, i.e., €200 per year. I currently pay about 30 cents/kWh, so that would be €150 per year per person. Gas costs about half. If I had your email address, I could send you the article. Of course, with regard to performance, a heat pump would probably be optimal, but it costs significantly more upfront and is often more prone to failures or subsequent tradesmen costs. I can well understand the approach of implementing it with people I know to be reliable, as I have been repeatedly severely disappointed by heating/ventilation installers in particular. Neither the controlled residential ventilation nor the domestic hot water heat pump could be properly adjusted by him, and without the manufacturer's hotline both would have been completely helpless. For me, this has led to preferring to rely on people I can trust and not implementing some things, even though they might have been the better option computationally. Our domestic hot water heat pump from Vaillant runs great, but I hope to remain spared from the apparently rather frequent problems. With the Zehnder controlled residential ventilation, I already started tinkering myself after just a few years because our tradesman hardly had a clue and every time nearly €500 were gone. You heat the apartment with infrared, so why not the water as well. Generally, I like it anyway when I pay exactly for what I use. Our hot water is heated completely unnecessarily 30% of the year because we don't need it. And someone who doesn’t know the off-button manages, with any heating type, to make the costs explode. Our ex-co-owner in the multi-family house actually managed to consume about six times as much as the other owners in the bathroom and suspected fraud. When I entered her bathroom, I almost fell over; it was so hot there with the window tilted. It's not always just technocratic calculations that count; stress-free building or renting also has, in my opinion, a high value.

If you have craftsmen for everything except gas: Daikin Multi Plus or Hitachi Multi Yutampo.

Air/air heat pump as multi-split and simultaneous DHW preparation in wall-mounted storage tank.
An indoor unit in every room and the outdoor unit on the balcony. The latter probably has to be coordinated with the homeowners' association. Only 1/3 to 1/4 of the electricity consumption compared to infrared and DLE with reasonable investment costs.

The latter probably has to be coordinated with the WEG.

Nearly all of this must be coordinated: - Change of heating type - Small core drilling - External installation Otherwise, of course, something like this is also a good thing.

If you have tradesmen for everything except gas: Daikin Multi Plus or Hitachi Multi Yutampo.

Air-to-air heat pump as a multi-split and simultaneous hot water preparation in a wall-mounted storage tank.
One indoor unit in every room and the outdoor unit on the balcony. The latter probably needs to be coordinated with the homeowners' association. Only 1/3 to 1/4 of the electricity consumption compared to infrared and DLE at reasonable investment costs.

That's quite a complicated story and yet I still have some kind of boiler hanging somewhere. Meanwhile, someone gave me the tip that if a DLE doesn't work due to the cable dimension from the basement to the apartment, I could hang an electric boiler near the ceiling, which I hadn't thought of myself. I'm somewhat accepting the idea at the moment that I might take this solution.
But I still have hope for a gas hot water boiler; a gas installer who shut off the gas for me so we could dismantle the very old individual gas heaters somewhat indicated that he might possibly do it within a reasonable timeframe, all very vague but maybe it will work out. I'm hoping for that now.

Stiftung Warentest tested electric instantaneous water heaters in 09/2023 and also found that they incur higher costs than, for example, heat pumps. It was also mentioned that you need a water tank in the basement for this. They assumed 41 liters per model person per day of water consumption and 40 cents per kilowatt-hour. Over 10 years, this amounts to approximately €2,000 per person, or €200 per year. I currently pay about 30 cents/kWh, so that would be €150 per year per person. Gas costs about half as much. If I had your email address, I could send you the article. Of course, performance-wise, a heat pump would probably be optimal, but it initially costs significantly more and is often more susceptible to problems, resulting in more subsequent repair costs. I can understand the approach well, implementing it with people I know to be reliable, since I have been repeatedly disappointed especially by heating/ventilation installers. Neither the controlled residential ventilation nor the domestic hot water heat pump could be properly set up, and without the manufacturer’s hotline both would have been totally lost. For me, this led to relying on people I can trust rather than implementing some things, even though they might have been better in calculations. Our domestic hot water heat pump from Vaillant runs great, but I hope to continue to be spared from the apparently fairly frequent troubles. With the Zehnder controlled residential ventilation, I began tinkering myself after only a few years because our installer hardly knew anything and every time it cost nearly €500. You heat your apartment with infrared, so why not the water too? In general, I like to pay exactly for what I use. Our hot water is heated completely unnecessarily 30% of the year because we don’t need it. And someone who doesn’t know the off button can make the costs explode with any heating type. Our former co-owner in the multi-family house actually managed to consume about 6 times as much as the rest of us owners in the bathroom and suspected fraud. When I entered her bathroom, I almost fell over it was so hot there with the window tilted open. It’s not always just technocratic calculations that count, stress-free building or renting also have high value in my opinion.

I also find it very tempting, it’s just super easy, everything with electricity, no complex systems. I only have some concerns about the costs; maybe these are unfounded but so far I have not found any information that credibly shows that the costs are not much higher than, for example, with gas.