On Demand Tankless Hot Water Heaters

A tankless water heater is an on demand hot water heater which does not store hot water but produces it instantaneously the moment you require it. Tankless water heaters come in a variety of models that use electricity, or gas (including propane and kerosene) to heat the water.

What a conventional tank water heater does is to heat the water and store it in the built in tank. Over time this water begins to cool down triggering off the thermostat and heating the same water all over again. This leads to a waste of electricity, pushing up your power consumption and bills. The main advantage of a tankless water heater lies here. It has got no storage tank. Until water does not flow through it, it is a dead unit. The moment you turn on the flow of water, it comes to life. The water triggers off a mechanism that turns on either the electricity or flow of gas which is ignited automatically. This water runs through a series of specially designed tubes (mostly high grade copper) that heat the water to very high temperatures instantly.

Water goes into the unit cold and in a matter of seconds begins flowing out hot. The capacity of a tankless water heater is measured by how many degrees it increases the temperature of water at a given flow. The standard measurement for this is gpm (gallons per minute).

Which Tankless Water Heater is Better
Tankless water heaters come in gas and electric models. Also these models are further divided into single-fixture units and whole-house units. Single-fixture units are those units that will be used only for one outlet. Whole-house units will be placed centrally and supply hot water to two or more outlets.

It is important to know what the exact use of the unit will be. If you require a unit for just one user at a time, and the users are few, a small capacity electric tankless water heater is a good choice. The only drawback of an electric tankless water heater is that it may use a lot of power since it has to heat the water quickly to the desired temperature. If the tankless water heater will be centrally located and used by more than two outlets simultaneously, then a gas fired tankless water heater will be a good choice. When going in for the whole-house model, make sure you know as to how many outlets will be connected to the unit and buy a unit which can handle the load when all the outlets are used simultaneously. If the model cannot handle the load, what everyone will get is barely warm or cold water.

Initial Costs of a Tankless Water Heater
If you are thinking of savings on water heating in the long run, then you must get a tankless water heater. Maximum savings in the long run will come from the gas based versions. Whether you buy an electric tankless water heater or a gas based tankless water heater, it is going to be much more expensive than the tank-type water heater. Setting up these water heaters is not very cumbersome since they are not as bulky as the tank-type variety. Problems that can occur with the electric version of tankless water heaters is in the electric wiring part. Even though these heaters will be on for a much shorter duration of time than the tank-based heaters, the amount of current that they pull during this short duration is very high. You may have to change the wiring in case the previous wiring is of lower capacity. This can be an additional cost which cannot be avoided since faulty wiring is not a good thing to have at home. The gas based version of tankless water heaters will require venting. If the unit installed is in the bathroom, venting will be pretty simple; if it is a central unit with a bigger capacity, venting may be a bit complex and cost you more.

Whatever the initial costs of fitting a tankless water heater as compared to a tank-type water heater, it will be covered in a very short span of time. Once the initial cost is covered, it is super-savings throughout the life of the unit.

Savings Using a Tankless Water Heater
The prime reason many today are shifting from the tank variety of hot water heaters to the tankless variety are the huge cost savings. Tankless water heaters can save you anything between 10% to over 40% in you total hot water bills. Some even go to the extent of claiming a saving of about 60%.

When you use a tank-type water heater the water is heated and starts cooling down. In due time this water is reheated. This uses electricity, increasing your power consumption. When you use an electric tankless water heater this heating and re-heating does not occur. The water is heated just once and used immediately. This is where you save. The savings here are not huge. Using an electric tankless water heater will usually save you approximately 10 to 20% in your power consumption.

The real saving is when you use the gas variations of tankless water heaters. Gas based tankless water heaters (including propane and kerosene) can heat much larger volumes of water to a higher temperature instantly as compared to the electric tankless water heater. This is the reason gas based tankless water heaters are recommended for the whole-house units. Larger models will be able to handle even 3 to 4 simultaneous connections. For an electric model to cope up, it will have to guzzle down a huge amount of electricity, skyrocketing your electricity bills. Using the gas based version will save you an approximate 40% over the conventional electric tank-type water heater.

The life of a tank-type water heater is approximately 10 to 15 years, and that of a tankless water heater is 15 to 20 years. The reason for this is that tankless water heaters do not store water; hence the chances of corrosion and deposits are minimal. This too leads to a big saving in the long run.

Uses of Tankless Water Heaters
The main use of all water heaters are in the bathroom and used mostly for bathing (shower and bathtub). In places with colder temperatures hot water is also used in the lavatory, kitchen sink, and laundry. If you are planning to connect all of these to your water heater, then you must go in for a gas fired model which has got the capacity to heat water for all these requirements simultaneously. The model you buy will also depend on what temperature of water normally flows out of the faucet. Places having a colder temperature will require heaters with higher heating capacity to heat the same amount of water as in a hotter climate.

When choosing the tankless water heater for your home, you must make sure that you know exactly what you will require it for. Getting one fitted and then realizing that you will require a model with more or less capacity will be a big waste of your money. You should know as to how many outlets are to be connected to the unit. You must also know the temperature of water that normally flows out of your faucets during the coldest time in the year. All the tankless water heaters have got an adjustment for the output water temperature, so, if you are in doubt go in for a higher capacity model; you can always reduce the temperature of water required. Never go in for a lower capacity model if you are in doubt, you will be able to reduce the output water temperature, not increase it when there are multiple users.

Cost savings using a tankless water heater (more so the gas-fired variety) over the tank-type variety are very significant over the years. Get a tankless water heater installed in your home today, and begin counting your savings for a long time to come.