Traditional water heating in a home has for decades involved a large tank of water, preheated to a higher temperature than the normal level it has coming out of the municipal tap. This in turn makes it easier to have hot water for showers, laundry, and washing. However, the same requires a lot of energy to fire up and heat the same tank, which requires a draw on natural gas each time. When too much hot water is used, the tank runs low, and then the homeowner has to wait for the tank to fill and heat up again. This becomes more and more the case as the water heater gets older with use.
A tankless water heater provides a big paradigm change for home water heating. The design does away with the storage tank completely. Instead, water is heated up as it flows through the system. The results are an endless supply that maintains heat delivery at a constant rate without cycling downtimes for refills and re-heating. The approach also works extremely well for homes with limited space, tight areas for appliances, and big household demand for hot water (i.e. larger families).
Additional Benefits
Tankless water heaters use a lot less energy for their operation, which translates into savings on home utility bills. Especially in the winter now, gas utility bills are skyrocketing. A traditional water heater’s firing up to maintain temperature adds to that cost. With a tankless water heater system, a homeowner sees a third more efficiency improvement over current performance, even with newer tank heaters, especially if staying under 40 gallons a day on demand. Additionally, there’s no need to lower down and fire up again with gaps due to vacations; tankless water heaters don’t need to maintain any stored water, so there’s no related energy loss restoring normal use again.
The duration of a tankless system is definitely better as well. Most traditional tank water heaters are expected to provide a good 10 years of service. After that, breakdowns and replacement needs rise exponentially. With a tankless system, however, the minimum duration is double that of a traditional heater. And, that lifespan could be longer given the fact that repair and replacement can be compartmentalized, getting longer life out of most of the system than throwing away good parts with a complete overhaul.
Performance Expectations
The range of delivery with a tankless system tends to be hot water on demand instantly at a rate of 2- to 5 gallons per minute. With a traditional system, a shower is easily going to waste 5 to 10 gallons letting water flow before the hot water arrives. Then it lasts maybe 5 minutes before starting to lose strength. Delivery and performance are also affected by the size of the household. Just like a traditional tank needed to be larger for a big family, a tankless system must be scaled up in capacity for a bigger demand too.
Professional Service and Installation
Given the amount of changes needed, and plumbing expertise involved, a tankless heater system is best installed with a professional plumber’s help. This ensures that the model chosen has the ability to address the home’s needs as well as connect properly with the existing systems. Nothing is more frustrating than buying equipment and then finding out it doesn’t match the connection to the house grid. Add in the fact that expertise and practice working on plumbing daily helps avoid unnecessary mistakes, a professional service just makes a lot of sense with an investment as big as a new water heater system.
