When you're in the market for anew water heater, you're going to have to make a lot of decisions. This water heater buyer's guide is intended to ease the burden of that decision by helping you to organize all the important information and processing it. Let's start with the most important choice.
There are several different types of fuel for hot water heaters. The three most common areelectricity, natural gas, andliquid propane. Most people choose the fuel type compatible with their home's existing infrastructure. If you don't have natural gas running to your home, you probably need to settle for electric. Natural gas seems to be the ideal fuel for convenience, efficiency, and cost.
If you are goingelectric, then this is sort of a toss-up decision. Electric isn't the most efficient way to fueltankless water heaters. You may want to stick to a traditionaltank water heater.
However, withnatural gasinstallations, the technology is now wheretankless is viewed as superior to tank, almost unanimously. You only heat the water you use, and tho a more expensive purchase, tankless installations last quite a bit longer. You save in the long run and conserve energy. If you don't think you will live in your home long, it may not be worth the initial investment (although you can use the on-demand unit as a selling point).
Storagewater heaters have a reservoir of hot water readily available. When you turn the tap to hot, it takes that hot water directly out of the top of the tank. When water is taken out of the tank, it is simultaneously replacing it at the bottom of the tank with cold water, ensuring that it is always full. That cold water is then heated.
With aninstant热水器,水通过大学t where a heat exchanger does the work. This provides hot water instantaneously and constantly for as long as needed. This eliminates the need to store hot water in a tank to be reheated and also eliminates the standby heat loss that occurs when the heater is not being used.
Read more aboutTank vs. Tankless Water Heaters.
Fortankless, what you need to know is that theflow ratesof your faucets and appliances are an important factor. You just need to be able to do a little math. You'll see BTU outputs listed pretty prominently on new water heaters, but what you really need to know ishow many gallons per minute it can heat?If the unit can heat 8 gallons per minute, that means you can run hot water to at least five faucets that operate at 1.5 GPM. Tubs and showers operate at about 2 gallons per minute. If you have a large home, consider that it might be a good idea to get two smaller output tankless units, as opposed to one large one.
Forstorageinstallations, you need tomake a calculation based on the capacity of the tank. A 10-minute shower uses up about 20 gallons of water. That means that a 55-gallon water heater tank will deliver hot water for up to three simultaneous showers. Factor in that you might be doing food prep and other chores, and it's easy to see why big families choose 100-gallon tanks or opt to go with on-demand solutions. For crying out loud, you need 15-30 gallons just to wash a load of laundry (and that's with newer, efficient washers). Another thing you need to consider is thefirst-hour rating, which indicates how much hot water you can produce in the first hour after usage.
Well, that really depends on the type and also what kind of stress you put on it.
