Are you looking around for tankless water heaters in the Santa Ana, CA area? Well, you are at the right place then! Tankless heaters are also called instantaneous and demand type water heaters. As the name implies, they don’t store heated water; they just heat it when there is a need, and then direct it towards your home’s plumbing system. What’s the benefit? Too many actually, the biggest of which is probably the decrease in your energy bills.
How Do Tankless Water Heaters Work?
These water heaters directly heats water, without storing it. As soon as you turn on the tap, the cold water in the plumbing line travels to the tankless heater where it is heated with an electric or gas burners. This hot water is then directed to the tap which you just turned on. The entire process is accomplished in just seconds, so you don’t have to wait for hot water to flow out through the tap, provided you chose an appropriately sized heater.
While the water supply is constant, the output flow rate may be limited, but then again, if you carefully select the size, you wouldn’t have any issues. On an average, they provide hot water at rates between 2 and 5 gallons per minute. Also gas tankless water heaters feature higher flow rates than an electric heater.
If your water consumption is high, then even the biggest gas based tankless water heaters may not be sufficient enough for your needs. The same may be the case if hot water is used simultaneously for multiple purposes like bathing and washing dishes. In all these cases, a possible solution is to install two rather than one. But just to be sure, discuss your hot water consumption requirements with Bluefrog Plumbing + Drain in the Santa Ana, CA area, and accordingly, we’ll suggest a suitable number of them that you should install.
When installing separate heaters, there are further considerations as well. For instance, you can either connect them in parallel, or install them separately with various appliances. As an example, you could have a different tankless water heater for you dishwasher and another one for your clothes washer.
What Are the Pros and Cons?
If you are consuming 41 gallons of water at the most on a daily basis, then a tankless hot water can increase your home’s energy efficiency by as much as 24% to 34% compared to conventional heaters. If your water consumption is as much as 86 gallons, then your efficiency would increase by 8% to 14%. So as can be seen, efficiency does decrease if your water consumption rises, but you are still getting a benefit over traditional water heaters.
Want to enjoy more even more efficiency? Install a tankless water healer with every outlet and go for Energy Star qualified units. As per research, this can help you save as much as $100 and even more every year.
But with every advantage, there are some drawbacks as well. The upfront costs associated with tankless water heaters, are on the higher side and greater than conventional water heaters. But tankless units have a longer life and use less energy. So the costs are compensated. Roughly, tankless heaters, have a life of 20 years, whereas for storage water heaters, this is limited to just 10 years or 15 at the most.
Considering gas and electric tankless water heaters the former of these may waste some energy if the pilot light burns constantly, but there are workarounds so it’s not too much of an issue. Talk to a reputed plumber and they’ll help you out.
How to Select Suitable Tankless Water Heater
You should consider fuel type, size, energy efficiency and of course, the costs.
The flow rate and maximum temperature are specified. Consider all hot water devices that you use, and add up their flow rates to get an estimate. For determining temperature, you can subtract the current temperature of water in the line from the value that you desire.
Tankless hot waters can run on electricity, oil, geothermal energy, natural gas, propane and solar energy. Electricity and geothermal energy are available throughout the country. Natural gas is available in areas, whereas fuel oil can be obtained only in some regions. Solar energy is also available throughout the country. Do compare the rates of these fuel types before deciding. Energy efficiency is determined by the energy factor, which should be more for greater efficiency.
Choose a Reputed Plumbing Company for Installation and Maintenance
If tankless water heaters are properly installed, energy efficiency can be optimized. As such, you should always turn to a reputed plumber and ask them to do the task for you. Various factors play a part in installation such as the type of fuel, climate, building code requirements, safety and your home’s plumbing and electrical systems. Once installed, get the unit serviced by a reputed plumber to maintain its life and minimize energy loss.
Get in touch with us at Bluefrog Plumbing + Drain in the Santa Ana, CA area, and we’ll ensure that the unit is properly installed such that you get the maximum energy benefits. And don’t forget to get it maintained!
Photo By Rashevskyi Vyacheslav at Shutterstock
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