How to Choose a Tankless Water Heater

Having already gone through the process of researching tankless water heaters and the manufacturers I came across some interesting findings that should be considered before one buys one of these types of heaters. Some things that need be brought into the equation are common sense issues while several others may be never have been given a thought until stepping into this arena.

For the sake of todays discussion we'll forgo whether or not it's more efficient to use electric, gas or propane and leave the debate for article. I'm going to assume that you'll just use whatever you currently have for a utility and get on with the more generalized tankless heater points to ponder.

First of all, and this is one of those “common sense” items, you'll need to ascertain the usage for the heater. That is, how much hot water will be needing to be consumed and when. For instance, do you live alone and shower at a different time than when the laundry is running? Or, do you have 3 bathrooms and a laundry room that may all be utilized simultaneously? There's a mighty big difference there.

Once that's figured out you'll want to consider if the tankless water heater will use a use a centralized system with many branches coming off of a main trunk or if you'll want to run one line and branch off to each usage as you go along. There are benefits to both. With the first option you can break it into zones and not have hot water running through the whole system just to reach the furtherest point.

An item that is seldom thought of is the water temperature. And this is an extremely important factor. For homes in warmer climates it's not as big an issue, but, if you live in Michigan or New England where the ground water temperature can be extremely cold a more powerful unit may be in order. Obviously, it takes more energy to heat colder water than warmer water and you certainly don't want to end up with lukewarm water because you decided to save a few bucks. An option to this would be to run two tankless water heaters in parallel with each sending hot water to the point of usage.

One last point is the water flow rate. Sizing a tankless water heater is determined by how cold the water is (as previously discussed) and how fast the water is moving through the line. The slower the flow rate the more time the unit has to work with the water in heating it. Some folks have actually installed flow restrictors in faucets and shower heads to help compensate for excessive flow rates.

Except for safety issues such as where to install the unit or exhausting a unit other than an electric most of the other concerns will be covered in the manufacturers materials. That's the basics for how to choose a tankless water heater. Again, they all perform the same function, that is to only heat water when it's called for. So, decide if you want gas, electric or propane and enjoy you new, lower utility bill! For more information and resources see my bio below.

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Written by RJ Dudley
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