What You Need To Know About Tankless Water Heaters

11 August 2016
 Categories: , Blog


Most people assume that there isn't much diversity where water heater technology is concerned. Yet recent years have seen the steady evolution of the exciting new option known as tankless water heating. If you would like to learn more about how tankless water heaters differ from standard ones, read on. This article will provide a helpful overview of tankless water heaters.

Some Basic Information

A tankless water heater's main feature is given away by its name: water is neither heated nor stored inside of a traditional storage tank. That means that your hot water usage is not limited by the size of your water heater. On the contrary, a tankless water heater is capable of providing an endless stream of hot water.

Here's how a tankless water heater works. When you turn on the hot water knob on your faucet, it causes cold water to flow through the tankless heater, where a super-charged heating element brings it up to temperature almost instantaneously. While this may sound like magic, the heating elements used by tankless heaters are actually quite similar to those used by traditional water heaters.

The difference is that the heating element is not responsible for heating the water up directly. Instead, it supercharges an internal component called the heat exchanger. As the water flows through the heater, it passes around the exchanger, which is responsible for effecting the desired transfer of heat.  

Tankless Heater Pros

By now you've probably already grasped the most exciting advantage of a tankless water heater: you'll never have to worry about running out of hot water again. In addition, tankless water heaters also offer an effective way to reduce the overall energy consumption of your home. Such energy savings are greatest in smaller households—those that utilize fewer than 41 gallons of water per day. In that case, you can expect to see energy reductions of 24-34%.

These savings are related to a decrease in so-called standby energy losses. Simply put, standby losses are related to the energy it takes to keep the water in a traditional water tank hot—even when it's not being used. Because tankless water heaters provide hot water on-demand, standby losses can be largely eliminated.

Tankless Heater Cons

The primary disadvantage associated with tankless water heaters are their higher cost of installation. Those who experience hesitations about this extra expense should remember, however, that such costs will be offset over time by the efficiency factors discussed above. By thinking of a tankless heater as a long term investment, such hesitations can generally be overcome.

For more information, contact local professionals like Actionaire Inc.


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