What is so special about a Tankless Water Heater? It is basically a hot water heater without the use of a storage tank. What good is that? The standard water heaters lose heat while on standby. Lot of people use a special insulated wrap for their heater to cut down on this heat loss. Remember, once the temperature of the tank begins to cool off; the pilot light goes on heating up the water to a preset target.



The greenest thing about a tankless heater is they avoid the standby heat losses associated with storage water heaters. Think about it, this means there is relatively no heat loss since hot water is not stored. When you turn on the hot, naturally cold water travels through a pipe into the unit. The cold water eventually turns hot. You are wasting water using the old fashion water heater. Water has become a precious commodity is many parts of the United States.

There are several types of tankless heaters on the market. The electric Tankless Water Heater uses an electric element to heat the water. A gas fired tankless heater can be propane, butane or natural gas. The gas tankless heater heats a gas burner to heat up the water. Both the electric and gas fired tankless water heaters deliver a steady supply of hot water. Have you ever tried to take a shower following someone before you who used up all the hot water? With the tankless heaters, you don't need to wait for a storage tank to fill up with enough hot water.

You are thinking this sound pretty good but how much water will a tankless heater provide? On the average, a tankless water heater will supply hot water at a rate of 2 ? 5 gallons (7.6 ? 15.2 liters) per minute. Characteristically, a gas-fired tankless water heater will produce higher flow rates than electric tankless heater. What about the cost? Normally gas is usually cheaper than electric. Since you are constant recycling the energy source and using it only when needed, you will save on energy use.

Will one tankless water heater supply enough hot water for my entire house? Using common sense, we know that some smaller tankless heaters cannot supply enough hot water for concurrent, numerous uses in large households. If you are using the dishwasher and shower at the same time, it may present a problem for you. You may be stretching the upper limits of efficiency for a small unit.

Have no fear; you can overcome this problem by installing a tankless heater that is designed for the whole house. You could also install smaller units designed for a particular use such as your laundry room or bathroom and then a separate one for the kitchen. The possible are endless but remember the whole process of changing over is not only to save energy, but also see some financial payback in the long run.

Tankless heaters can "normally" be retrofitted to older homes so that you have on-demand hot water. These smaller units can fit in closets or under the kitchen or bathroom cabinet. The whole house units can take advantage of the existing water heater connections and provide tankless heating to the entire home.