Imagine endless hot water and lower energy bills!
You don’t use hot water 24 hours a day. But, you’re paying to heat water 24 hours a day. With a standard water heater, you heat and reheat the same water even when you’re sleeping.
The tankless water heater is a more efficient way to heat water. It heats water quickly and delivers an endless supply of hot water for as long as you need it. You only pay to heat water when you need it and for as long as you want it.
Benefits of Tankless Water Heaters:
- Can produce and supply endless streams of hot water to multiple outlets simultaneously without any fluctuation in temperature
- Are 30 to 50 percent more energy efficient than a traditional water heater
- Shut-off automatically when the hot water supply is closed, providing users with significant energy savings - in turn saving money on their utility bills
- Are compact “wall mounted units” with an average life expectancy of 20 years, whereas hot water tanks require about 16 square feet of floor space and usually last around 7-10 years
Factors To Consider When Purchasing a Tankless Water Heater
1. Gas vs. Electric if you have a choice between gas and electric, we suggest the gas units as they are typically more powerful than the electric units and are more energy efficient. Not all gas homes can have a gas unit installed due to specific venting requirements. The electric tankless water heaters are hard wired and typically have high amperage requirements, however there are no combustion air or venting requirements with an electric unit. Electric units are primarily suitable for industrial uses when they can replace a standard tank that is using thousands of kilowatt hours per year to heat water for a bathroom that does not require much hot water. In this situation, an electric tankless can result in substantial savings over an existing electric tank water heater.
2. Flow rate While tankless water heaters can provide an endless supply of hot water, they have a limitation as to how much hot water can be produced at any given time. There is also a relationship between the amount of hot water produced in gpm (gallons per minute) and the temperature rise which is listed in our product comparisons link at the bottom of this page. The temperature rise refers to the number of degrees the inlet water temperature is increased. For example, in the US the average inlet water temperature is 55 degrees, so to raise the water to 115 degrees in this case would require a 60 degree temperature rise. Modern gas tankless systems can produce as much as 9 gallons of hot water per minute which is the equivalent of four standard showers at once.
3. How much hot water do you need at one time? Do you need to run 2 showers at the same time or maybe a shower and a couple sinks? We suggest using 2.0 gpm for a shower and 1.0 gpm for a bathroom as a reference point in determining your total simultaneous water needs.
