Prepare for winter, go tankless

Prepare for winter, go tankless

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Winter is quickly approaching and will soon be upon us. Homeowners with storage water heaters may face numerous problems that could cause damage to their heating system, and force them to break out the wallet. Avoiding these potential dilemmas can be easy with one simple step—install an electric tankless water heater. Rusty parts If you haven’t had chapped lips during winter, you’re not living where the temperatures regularly dip below freezing. Just as your lips can chap, so can the gas and water lines on your storage water heaters. Storage water heaters only last for 10-15 years, according to the Department of Energy. Once a homeowner hits that mark, it’s just a guessing game for when it will finally break. This could result in a leak springing from the bottom of the water heater, where a lot of the rust tends to collect. A home without warm water during the winter is an insufferable torture that shouldn’t be wished on anyone’s worst enemy.
During the winter it's incredibly easy for pipes and systems to freeze.During the winter it’s incredibly easy for pipes and systems to freeze.
While storage water heaters are constructed so the anode rod that sits in the middle of the tank collects all the rust, a homeowner just can’t rely on this configuration. A storage water heater requires constant maintenance to make sure that it won’t malfunction during the winter, the time of the year it is perhaps most necessary. Electric tankless water heaters don’t have an anode rode, and are incredibly resistant to rusting. Their on-demand water heating process, where it only heats water when you need it, means that there won’t be any stagnant water left in the system to rust it. This gives homeowners the peace of mind during the winter that their system won’t give out. In places where the snow can reach 20 inches regularly, this becomes a boon of relief. Cut down energy during the most costly months Winter can ruin monthly budgets because of the increased need for long-term heating. Don’t let storage water heaters hike up your prices. Electric tankless water heaters keep them low and steady, while at the same time providing you with hot water all the time.

“43% of energy used by a water heater is converted into warm water.”

Storage water heaters suffer from standby heat loss, which is the gradual loss of temperature in the pool of water that stays heated up in the tank. This means extra energy is required to heat water that has already been warmed once before to the necessary temperature. According to SmarterHouse, just 43 percent of the energy used by your storage water heater is actually turned into warm water—regardless of whether or not it is used. Around 31 percent of energy sent to your storage water heater is lost from standby heat loss. Basically, nearly a third of all energy that goes to a homeowner’s water heater is lost before it even becomes warm water. In the few months that you require extra use from your water heater, this can be devastating on the wallet. Electric tankless water heaters use on-demand heating to only heat water when it’s necessary to do so. This gets rid of unneeded pools of water sitting in a storage tank, losing heat, wasting energy and costing money. The DOE reported that homeowner’s spend $400 to $600 a year alone on water heating. Switching from storage to tankless can save you at the minimum $100 off of your yearly bill. With water heating being the second largest bill in a home, according to the DOE, any money saved is smart money well spent.