Hi, our ancient gas freeloader hot water cylinder just dropped it's guts yesterday. The novelty of cold showers has worn off already so I'm rapidly trying to figure out our options.

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has gone through the same experience.

Here are some facts:

• we only use gas now for hot water
• costs about $80/month for gas, almost half of which is the supply charge
• heating is via central A/C
• family of 4 (3 females and 1 male... think long showers)
• needs to be an outdoor unit
• current unit is located outside of lounge and near bedroom
• we're in the middle of a reno, so by chance I'd just asked the sparky to run a cable to the hot water cylinder in case we converted to AC in the future

As I see it my options are:

 

1. Replace like for like with a new Rheem Stellar
2. Replace with a conventional electric cylinder
3. Replace with a AC unit, eg EcoSpring.

All options seem to have their pros and cons. Would like to hear what others have done when faced with a similar situation.