Hospitals are beacons of hope in our culture for sick or injured people. Safety is paramount, but sometimes it can come with a price. Medical facilities have the distinct opportunity to both increase the amount of safety they provide, as well as cut their water heating bills and save some money by installing electric tankless water heaters.

The safest place around
Patients go to hospitals to feel better, not get injured. So why are so many facilities still operating with a dangerous storage water heater system? To put it in context, children and older adults are most likely to receive a burn injury from scalding water. In fact, 34 percent of all burn center admissions from 2003 to 2012 came as a result of scalds, according to the American Burn Association

Storage water heaters can spike at the faucet and scald whoever is washing their hands. The average hospital supplies 315 gallons of water to each bed every day, Energy Star reported. That's a lot of chances for a burn to take place. The possibility of an accident shouldn't be left in the patient's hands – hospitals are supposed to control the fate of its patients and guide them to safety.

Warm water is used often at hospitals.

An electric tankless water heater uses thermal optic sensors to heat the water running through the system – instead of heating a whole tank at once. This keeps the warmth of the water at a safe and reliable temperature for patients, hospital staff and visitors alike.

Save the hospital money
Storage water heaters are vastly inefficient at using the energy provided – this is because of standby heat loss. In essence, storage water heaters heat up a tank full of water for prolonged use. The only issue is, the longer the water sits unused, the more heat it starts to give off. This can be an issue for health care facilities with irregular water use, because the next time hot water is called upon, the system heats up the tank once again. That's twice the amount of energy being used for just one action.

Electric tankless water heaters, by nature, don't have a tank full of water to heat up and waste energy on because water is heated on demand.  The difference for a hospital can be considerable. The Department of Energy noted that a home can save at least $100 a year on its utility bills by switching to an electric tankless water heater – this number is only amplified for larger municipal and private buildings.

By using electric tankless water heaters as point-of-use products, hospitals can protect the longevity of the system. They are small enough to be placed under sinks and in bathrooms, removing the need for long pipes to run throughout building. Storage water heaters don't provide this functionality, and they usually only last between 10 and 15 years. Hospital can get 20 years out of an electric tankless water heater with a properly maintained system that alleviates stress by installing point-of-use tankless water heaters.

Electric tankless water heaters last longer, are more energy efficient and safer to use – it doesn't take a neurosurgeon to figure that out. The initial cost may be expensive because the building is replacing all of it's hot water heating equipment, but the end result is years of saved money and safety provided to patients.