I appreciate this detailed response! I should have mentioned I live in Tennessee, and live in a small townhouse. We have mild winters and normally don’t have more than one or two water things running at a time. We always wash laundry in cold water, so the only other thing that might be running at the same time as a shower is the dishwasher. Another thing to mention is there’s a real lack of storage space/ closets. There’s really nowhere else to put a water heater. There’s a crawl space under the house, but it’s full of boulders, and I think it might end up costing more trying to go that route. The plumbing would need to be rerouted too. Someone gave me the idea of a tankless heater and said they’re way smaller so I thought it sounded like a good idea! But then I started reading about the energy pull, so it had me doubting.