Home improvements = money pit.....

OK, so maybe I am dramatic but my house is costing me some serious cash this week.  I bought my house 2 years ago and I had an inspection.  The inspector told me to get a new electrical panel.  So this week I had an electrician come out and replace our panel.  I also needed a new porch light.  The porch light could have waited but we already purchased the light months ago and the electrician only charged me $50 to install it.  The breaker panel was $565.00 with installtion. Total cost $615.00 was spent just on Tuesday...

This morning I wake up and get a shower. I notice that my hot water is not working.  So I have my husband (who works from home) check on the pilot light. He doesn't see it the pilot light on.  So I call this heating company that I use on a yearly basis to clean my furnace.  They give me a $89.00 price quote and say they will send someone out to tell us what is wrong with the hot water heater.  Before the repair guy shows up, my father in law comes over to look at our heater and says we might need the whole tank replaced. Next the repair guy comes over and gives us the same exact advice that my father in law gave my husband. He says even though the hot water tank is only 7 yrs old-- it needs to be replaced. The technician charges my husband another $150 bucks for just giving us the same freaking advice and not repairing anything.  I am pretty pisst off.  Why do companies think they can get away with this crap by double charging us?  So I called and complained and they are not charging us $150.00 for the visit.



Right now we are looking into a new hot water heater.  Either we will get the same replacement and spend $750.00 including installation or we will spend $1500+ and get a energy efficient tankless heater.  It is double the price but we like to try to conserve energy as much as possible and our house is small and maybe we should invest in a tankless heater. 


Any advice on tankless heaters?