Energy Savings of Tankless Water Heaters – Affordable Water Heaters and Plumbing Inc.

Tankless Water Heaters

- The Basics. learn more »
- Energy Savings.
- Tankless Water Heater Location. learn more »
- Outdoor Installation. learn more »
- Performance. learn more »
- Serviceability. learn more »
- Choosing The Right Size. learn more »
- Warranties. learn more »
The Basics of Tankless Water Heaters

Energy Savings of Tankless Water Heaters

Tankless water heaters save fuel because they do not have to maintain a supply of hot water in a tank and are typically "always off". Tank type water heaters fire on and off all the time to maintain the temperature of water in the tank within about 10° of the thermostat setting. (This is called "Stand-by heat loss") This also can result in some noticeable temperature difference. Tankless water heaters provide hot water to the set point temperature plus or minus 2°.

Another thing that makes tankless hot water heater more fuel-efficient is that they are "fully modulating". In other words they only use the fuel needed to heat the water to the set point at the current flow rate.

If you are washing your hands using under 1 gallon per minute (GPM) you will be at a lower firing rate than you would be if you are filling you tub at 3 GPM.

This works much like your car. When you are sitting still the car is idling. When you want to go or go faster, you give it more gas and when you get where you are going you turn it off. With tankless water heater’s design of a "always off" condition and their modulating capabilities it is common to see up to a 50% reduction in fuel use when changing from a tank type water heater to a tankless water heater unit.

If you are going to change from a 50-gallon gas water heater to a tankless water heater you are probably not going to realize quite that much energy savings.

In fact a 50-gallon tank water heater does not use much more fuel at all compared to most tankless heaters. However a 50-gallon tank heater only can really give you about 40 gallons of hot water per use before you begin running out of hot water. The tankless heater will deliver more than 300 gallons per hour for most of the year and you can never run out!

Part of the decision making process is to determine what do you want? Endless hot water in a tankless water heater may be worth the additional investment to you even without an energy payback.

Tankless Water Heaters

The Basics of Tankless Water Heaters