Do you have an old tank water heater in your home that’s started leaking or just no longer works that well? Whenever the time eventually arrives that your water heater needs to be replaced, it’s well worth looking into installing a tankless unit.
A tankless water heater will cost you a bit more, but it also has many advantages and will provide many benefits that a standard unit can’t compete with. In this article, we’ll explore the benefits you can get by installing a tankless water heater in your home to help you understand why it can definitely be worth paying the slightly higher cost.
1. Improved Efficiency and Energy Savings
One of the main reasons that most people choose to install a tankless water heater is that it helps to reduce their gas or electricity bills. Although most tank water heaters are fairly well insulated, the hot water they hold still ends up slowly cooling down over time. This is especially the case during the winter when the temperature inside a house is sometimes lower.
Similarly, the water heater in many homes is located in the basement or garage, and this also leads to the water cooling down more quickly since these areas are sometimes colder. The fact that the water inside the tank slowly loses heat is why tank water heaters must always turn on and reheat occasionally. In fact, many units will end up running for two to three hours each day even if you’re away. If you’re home and using hot water occasionally, the unit will obviously end up running more throughout the day.
What all of this is to say is that tank water heaters always end up wasting energy since they have to occasionally turn on and heat regardless of whether you’ve recently used any hot water or not. That’s one reason why a tankless water heater is often the better choice since it won’t ever turn on until you start running hot water in your sink, shower, etc. This is why you’ll often hear tankless units referred to as on-demand water heaters since they only work on demand instead of needing to keep the water constantly hot.
The EPA estimates that a tankless water heater will typically use anywhere from 8% to 34% less energy than your average tank water heater. The reason that the energy savings can fluctuate so much is that it really depends on your hot water usage. The energy savings are always greatest for smaller families that normally don’t use more than 40 or so gallons of hot water in a typical day.
Nonetheless, you’ll almost always still save at least some money even if your daily hot water needs are more than double that. The one situation where a tankless water heater may not save you any money on your energy bills is if you have a larger family that often uses well over 100 gallons of hot water in a day. Still, it depends largely on how efficient of either a tank or tankless water heater you install.
2. Limitless Hot Water Supply
One major drawback to tank water heaters is that you can easily use up all of your hot water supply in a fairly short time. If you only have a 40-gallon water heater tank, it often won’t even be sufficient to supply two showers back-to-back since the average person uses around 20 gallons each time they shower. The exact number of gallons you can use before your hot water runs out obviously depends on the size of the water heater tank but also on the unit’s recovery rate and first-hour rating.
If you completely use up your hot water supply in a short time, the unit’s recovery rate is how long it will take before the cold water that flows into the tank gets fully heated to the right temperature. First-hour ratings are slightly more complicated since they refer to the total number of gallons you can use in a single hour when the water in the tank is already up to the right temperature.
The reason that recovery rates and first-hour ratings differ is that the water heater will always turn on and begin heating as soon as hot water gets drawn out of the tank and cold water flows in. That means you can use more gallons in an hour than your tank can hold. The first-hour recovery rate for a good tank water heater will usually be 25-50% of its total capacity. That means a 40-gallon unit could potentially supply up to 60 gallons per hour, but it also means three people showering in a row would lead to your hot water running out.
This is another major benefit of having a tankless water heater since it theoretically allows you to use as much hot water as you want per hour without running out. The reason we say theoretically is that you’re still limited in terms of how many total gallons the water heater can provide at any given time. Most tankless units can provide at least 3 gallons of hot water per minute, and larger units can provide at least 5 or 6 gallons each minute.
That means you shouldn’t have any issues taking a shower while someone else is using hot water as long as the unit is sufficiently large. If the unit is too small and doesn’t have a sufficient flow rate, you could end up with temperature fluctuations or the water not getting quite as hot as you want.
3. Long Life Expectancy
Another great thing about tankless water heaters is that they usually last longer, but it can depend on whether the unit is gas or electric. Electric tankless units sometimes only last for around 15 years, which is about the same as you can usually expect an electric tank unit to last. On the other hand, the average life expectancy for a gas tankless water heater is around 20-25 years. With regular preventative maintenance, some gas units may even last for 30 years or more.
4. Low Maintenance Requirements and Fewer Repair Needs
Tank water heaters have many additional components compared to tank units, which means they require quite a bit more maintenance. It also means that there are more things that can malfunction or wear out and lead to the water heater needing to be repaired. Tankless water heaters require very little maintenance other than flushing/descaling them once or twice a year to get rid of any mineral deposits. The fact that they have fewer components also means that there are fewer things that can go wrong and lead to the unit needing to be repaired.
If you need an experienced plumber, electrician, or HVAC technician in the Richmond, VA area, Davis & Green is the home service contractor you can trust. We’ve been serving the area for 40 years, and our experienced team is also ready to help with all of your commercial property’s needs. We offer expert water heater installation, repair, and maintenance along with an extensive range of other services. Whether it be plumbing work, air conditioning, heating, or whatever else you need, give us a call to be sure the job is done right and at a fair, affordable price.
