Tankless Water Heating: An Ideal Choice for Your Particular Home?
Many homeowners are switching to tankless water heating these days, as a result of both convenience and a desire to save energy. Claims of hot water on-demand and low utility bills sound appealing, but is it right for your home?
What Is Tankless Water Heating?
Tankless water heaters are also known as on-demand water heaters. Conventional water heaters use large tanks that continuously keep gallons of water heated for use at any time. This is great if you need hot water for several different uses at once, but not so great if you don’t want to spend money on heating and reheating water even when nobody’s home to use it. Tankless water heating systems only heat the water when it’s needed, and are typically 50 percent more efficient than standard tank water heaters. This saves money on your utility bill but you have to remember that with a typical tankless unit, you’ll only get about 2.5 gallons of hot water per minute (GPM) compared to as much as 7.5 to 9.5 GPM from a storage tank heater. This means hot water for about two uses at a time.
Is tankless water heating right for your home? That depends.
To make a decision, you have to take several things into consideration. Family Size Large families need large amounts of water at any given time so a tankless water heater might not be the best choice unless you’re willing to install more than one tankless heater. They can be installed along any length of pipe so you can have one near the laundry room, bathrooms or kitchen. Some homeowners install a larger, whole-house unit, and then supplement it with one or more point-of-use tankless heaters.
Price
Gas-fired tankless water heaters cost double the amount of a conventional water heater, costing hundreds of dollars to install but they may qualify for a $300 tax credit this year (2013). Electric tankless heaters are less expensive but won’t qualify for a tax credit. The U.S. Department of Energy says tankless water heating saves anywhere from $25 to $107 per year.
Environment Friendly
Installing these water heaters at each faucet can save 27-50 percent in energy costs per year, making them cheaper to operate and more environmentally friendly than conventional water heaters.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC & plumbing systems). Call Sobieski Services today and let us help you make the right choice about tankless water heating for your home.
Image Credit: mikemacadaan