¤¤ Tankless Water Heaters ¤¤

Tankless Water Heaters or Demand Water Heaters, simply heat water as you use it. They do not store heated water. The main purpose for a tankless water heater is to avoid the cost of maintaining the temperature of the hot water being stored in your regular water heater when you’re not using it. This requires continually reheating the water as the water temperature inside the tank continually drops.

The tankless hot water heater, on the other hand, only heats the water you are using. When your usage stops, the unit shuts off and doesn’t run again until you require more hot water.
Electric tankless heaters can be installed for point of use. In other words, you may want to install a sink in the garage and wish to have hot water there. The electric unit can be installed under the sink in the garage.

This eliminates having to run a “hot” water pipe to the garage from the house or having to install a regular tank type water heater in the garage. Cold water simply runs through the tankless heater and into the sink as you require it.

There are basically two energy supplies for tankless heaters: Electric and Gas.

Electric tankless heaters have the following advantages:

They require less space than gas heaters.
They require no flue.
They can be installed at specific points or use throughout the house for faster hot water supply.

Gas tankless heaters have two main advantages:

They are slightly more efficient than electric .
They will work during a power outage.

Many Tankless Water Heaters have a life expectancy of more than 20 years. They also have replaceable parts that extend their life by many more years. Conventional water heaters generally last 10 – 15 years

If your home uses 40 to 80 gallons of hot water daily, Tankless Water Heaters can be 10% – 30% more energy efficient than conventional storage tank water heaters.

Labels: tankless water heater

BENTON COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) - Benton County is home to a green technology company that could save you money on your water bill without forcing you to take cold showers.

EZ Tankless is a company that sells tankless water heaters. EZ Tankless employee Mike Pavuk said the concept and the size of the heater can be intimidating to new customers.

"They look at the unit, and it's so small compaired to a tank water heater, and they can't comprehend that it will produce enough hot water for them to take multiple showers at a time," said Pavuk.

Pavuk is quick to assure us that it can. The heater saves energy by only heating water when it's needed. When a customer turns on the hot water, a sensor is triggered that turns on the burners on the unit. The burners heat the water and hot water then flows continuously until it is shut off.

"When you turn the faucet off, it senses the flow has stopped and turns off the gas. So that's all the energy you're using. It's just that instant you're in the shower," said Pavuk.

A heater which runs only when it's needed is a completely different concept from the water heaters currently in most homes, which heat water continuously and store it until someone turns on a hot water faucet. Pavuk said you won't notice a difference in the bathroom, kitchen, or outdoor spigot: the change comes in your electric bill.

Pavuk said the tankless water heater pays for itself quickly, with some customers saving as much as $200 a year.

The cheapest tankless water heater EZ Tankless offers is the EZ Outdoor, which sells for $175. Their most expensive model at the moment is the EZ Hot Shot, which sells for around $600. The federal government offers a 30% tax credit for people who purchase.

Mike Pavuk said there have been some minor problems for well water users. He said that problem can be fixed with a water pressure regulator.

Pavuk said the tankless technology has been around for 50 years, but it hasn't been widely available in the United States. Pavuk said that this occured to one of the company's founders as he was on vacation. He said that the company found buyers swiftly after they made the heaters available in the United States.

Labels: bill, tankless water heater

In the era of ever increasing utility bills and shrinking storage space, tankless water heaters seem to be all the rage.  Let’s take a minute to discuss the benefits and disadvantages of going tankless.

Conventional water heaters require a great amount of time and energy to warm.  Tankless water heaters provide instant, unlimited access to hot water.  In fact, when installed at each hot water faucet, tankless water heaters can be up to 40% more energy efficient than the conventional water heaters and run at 99% efficiency (while brand new conventional heaters are at 80%).

Tankless water heaters also called instantaneous, continuous flow, inline, flash, on-demand or instant-on water heaters have been gaining popularity in recent years.  Tankless water heaters do not retain any significant water because they instantly heat water as it flows through the unit.  Smaller tankless heaters are usually installed at each point-of-use, while one larger model may provide all the hot water for an entire house.  These heaters can be up to 40% more energy efficient than conventional water heaters.

Point-of-use tankless water heaters are installed where the water is being used, so the water is almost instantly hot (ultimately saving water since it is wasted after turning on a faucet while waiting for it to heat.  This is due to the fact that the cold water in the pipes between the faucet and the water heater needs to be flushed out first).  Additionally, no hot water is left in the pipes after the water is shut off.  This ultimately saves more water and energy than centrally installed tankless water heaters.

Historically, point-of-use water heaters were electric, typically more expensive and less efficient than gas.  A gas tankless water heater can cut approximately 30% of a homeowner’s energy usage.

Advantages of tankless water heaters:

• Since water is heated only when needed, there is no hot water storage. With a tank, water is continuously kept hot even if it never gets used.


• Although flow rate determines the amount of hot water generated at one time, an unlimited supply of hot water is available.


• There is no stored water, so there is no risk of water damage from a leaking tank.


• Most tankless water heaters can be mounted on a wall.

Disadvantages of tankless water heaters:

• Installing a tankless system comes at an increased cost ($800 to $1,150 vs. $300 to $500 for conventional heaters), especially when installed in retro-fits.


• Practical tankless water heaters are limited to gas and electricity.  This disqualifies renewable energy sources such as solar because of the storage tank requirement.


• Tankless electric heaters, when installed in a large numbers of homes can create demand management problems for electrical utilities.  Because hot water use tends to peak at certain times of the day, they can cause short spikes in electricity demand.


• There is a short delay between the time the water begins to flow and when the heater activates the heating elements/gas burner.  Turning a hot water faucet on and off repeatedly can result in periods of hot water, then cold.


• In a tankless water heater, the faster the flow, the less time the water spends being heated.


• Tankless water heaters only heat water on demand; when installed far away from a faucet, the wait time for hot water increases.