Tankless Or Traditional Water Heaters — Comparing Pros And Cons
Tankless Or Traditional Water Heaters — Comparing Pros And Cons
Tankless water heaters have been a feature on the European market for several decades, where they’re known as instantaneous water heaters, but they’re a relatively new innovation on the U.S. mass market.
Making an informed decision between tankless and traditional water heaters means comparing pros and cons. Here are a few things to bear in mind:
- Delivery — Traditional water heaters can only supply a volume of water that’s limited by the size of the tank. Typically a household tank holds 50 gallons or less, and an average bathtub takes 37 gallons to fill. With a tank system, once the hot water is gone, it’s gone. Until the heating elements bring another tank-full up to temperature, no one can have a shower or run the dishwasher or clean their hands. A tankless system delivers an infinite volume of hot water, only on demand.
- Economy — With a tankless system, there’s no waste. Because hot water is not stored and waiting to be used, the heat you pay for is delivered immediately, not lost to the atmosphere. Lost heat translated directly into wasted money.
- Space — Water tanks take up a great deal of space; they typically occupy an entire closet. A tankless water heater is smaller in comparison and is attached to the wall in a convenient location. Access and airflow must not be blocked, but otherwise you won’t even know it’s there. The entire area where the old tank once stood is freed up, and who couldn’t use more storage space?
The government’s tax credit incentive for the installation of tankless water heaters expired at the end of 2011, but their energy-efficient performance still makes them worth considering. Whether your current equipment needs to be replaced or you’re simply considering an upgrade, consult the experts at Powers Heating & Air. We proudly serve homeowners in and around the Peachtree City area.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about water heaters and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
Powers Heating & Air serves Peachtree, GA and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
2 Comments
I’ve been surfing online more than 2 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty worth enough for me.
In my opinion, if all web owners and bloggers made good content as
you did, the internet will be a lot more useful than ever before.
We have the Rinnai too and I’m a bit disappointed at how long it can take for the water to come on and stlibaize. I do like that I can take a really long shower if I want. (I justify this by the fact that I only shower every three days– I don’t sweat much and we have very good bathroom hygiene here- and my husband often showers at the gym. So, we still save more water than other people.)We had a lot of problems with it at first. Not getting hot water at all to our main floor sink even though we had it in the upper floor sinks. Temperature changing a lot mid-way. AND you can’t take a shower and have the laundry on at the same time. Sure, your temperature won’t change but your water pressure WILL. We can’t have a shower and run a bath at the same time.But overall, it’s great. I have a much smaller utility room because of it which means I was able to get two bedrooms and a larger bathroom out of our basement instead of just one bedroom and a small bathroom.