Contributed Post
Best Instant Hot Water Heater – Tankless Reviews
In almost any household today, a water heater has become a basic necessity. This is especially true when it comes to living in the colder regions such as Canada, or the northern U.S. states. Needless to say, without a water heater, surviving the cold winter months could be pretty tough.
Still, water heaters aren’t perfect. In fact, conventional water heaters have one major disadvantage, which can be extremely inconveniencing from time to time: they often run out of hot water.
This is because conventional hot water heaters have tanks that are filled with a limited amount of water and heated to a specific temperature. This requires your unit to run continuously to maintain the water’s temperature.
Fortunately, there are also tankless hot water heaters, which only heat your water as it’s being used, so there’s always a steady supply of hot water, no matter how much has been used.
With a tankless hot water heater, the water is heated as it is being drawn through the appliance’s heat exchanger. This allows the heater to not only heat your water quickly, but also conserve energy, especially when compared to conventional water heaters, which continuously heat and re-heat the water in their tanks.
In fact, some studies on tankless water heaters have shown that using one could save you up to an average of 35% on your energy bills.
Still, before running out and buying yourself a brand-new tankless hot water heater, it’s important to do a bit of research and understand how tankless water heaters work, as well as whether buying one is right for you home.
So, with that in mind, we’ve put together the following review article to help you learn all there is to know about tankless hot water heaters.
Tankless Hot Water Heater Efficiency
Because there is no need to continuously maintain a certain water temperature, tankless water heaters are extremely good as conserving energy.
On the other hand, if you’re currently using a larger water heater with a storage tank, it could be costing significantly more than it really has to. To help explain this, let’s take a look at the daily requirements of a conventional hot water heater with a tank.
On most days, hot water is only needed for a handful of tasks, such as doing the dishes (20 – 30 minutes), taking a bath or shower (10 – 15 minutes), or doing laundry (30 – 45 minutes).
When you add up the amount of time that you actually need it, you quickly see that hot water is only needed for a couple of hours throughout the day. But your conventional hot water tank runs 24 hours a day and keeps a full tank of hot water ready, even though you only need enough hot water for an hour or two. This uses up a lot of unnecessary energy, which translates into money out of your pockets.
On the other hand, a tankless hot water heater does not waste any such energy, since it only works to fulfill the demand for hot water as needed.
As you can see by now, tankless hot water heaters are much more energy efficient, especially when compared to their tanked counterparts. In fact, tankless electric heaters are known to be about 40% more efficient than conventional tanks, whereas, tankless gas heaters are about 30% more efficient.
We should note that tankless water heaters tend to be a bit more expensive than conventional heaters.
However, since there is no holding tank, there is no chance of developing issues such as corrosion or leaks, which means less repair and maintenance bills. And, when you compared the overall lower operational costs and energy conservation, tankless hot water heaters are much more affordable in the long run.
Gas Vs. Electric Tankless Hot Water Heaters
When it comes to powering your tankless water heater, you have the option to choose from either gas or electric units.
If you’re replacing an existing tank hot water heater, then you’re going to want to replace it with a tankless heater that uses the same source of power. For example, if your existing hot water heater was electric, you’ll want to replace it with an electric tankless unit.
Both gas and electric tankless water heaters are relatively the same in price. Just keep in mind that there may be some additional installation costs if you’re switching from an electric heater to a gas heater, or vice versa, since you will need to install extra gas lines or wiring.
Read what others think about gas versus electric: https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments/6poknu/electric_vs_gas_tankless_water_heater/
Should I Install My Tankless Hot Water Heater Myself?
Tankless hot water heaters are relatively easy to install and can be done yourself so long as you have the basic knowledge of how a hot water heater works.
But, because the installation might affect your product’s warranty, we recommend hiring a professional contractor to install the hot water heater for you.
If you do decide to tackle the installation yourself, just make sure to have thoroughly read the owner’s manual first. Then, when it comes to installing the heater, you’ll be much better prepared for the job.
Keep in mind that if the unit is not installed properly, it may not function at its optimal efficiency, which could cost you money out of pocket.
So, with that in mind, it really is best to let a professional install the hot water heater for you. When purchasing a tankless hot water heater, you can always ask the seller about installing the unit. Or, they may be able to refer you to someone who installs their product.
Is Tankless the Better Choice?
As we’ve mentioned, there are several benefits you get with a tankless heater, that you don’t get with a conventional hot water tank.
Not only do tankless heaters cost less to run, you’re also guaranteed a steady supply of hot water no matter how much you use. There is also no risk of your tank developing corrosion and leaking.
So, when you compare tankless hot water heaters to their tanked counterparts, it’s easy to see that the tankless variety is the better alternative.
