Good morning guy, I am Roger Wakefield, LEED AP, The Expert Plumber.
Coming to you live today to talk to you about tankless water heaters.
Are they really that efficient?
And to be honest, the simple answer, the truth is: yes they are.
Tankless water heaters, also called "on demand water heaters", whether you go gas or electric,
are literally - they are designed to only come on when you call for water.
That's why they're called on demand water heaters.
They're not instant, so it's not like when you go to the faucet, turn the faucet on hot
water is going to be there, unless you have a really good circulating system and guys
some of these tankless water heaters do have a circulating system built in, they have a
comfort fitting you put in other places.
But back to the question of efficiency: are they worth it?
If you look at the energy savings versus the minimum standards on different water heaters,
so the first one would be a high-efficient storage tank-type water heater, you're looking
at a ten to twenty percent energy savings.
If you look at on demand tankless gas or electric you're looking forty-five to sixty percent
energy savings.
Now, you could go up from there you could go up to a heat pump at about sixty-five percent
savings and solar is the very best you can get, it's seventy to ninety percent savings.
So if you look at what you're going to save in the long run, guys a tankless water heater
is so much more worth it because it is so much more efficient.
Now, it's also going to cost you more to install it because chances are you're going to have
to change the gas line, chances are you may have to change your vent pipe, chances are
you may have to add a condensation drain.
There are different things that can make it more expensive in the beginning, but the thing
is to remember once you get all of that done for the initial installation, when you change
this in fifteen to twenty years, and yeah I did say fifteen to twenty years, because
if you treat them right they actual lifespan is longer than a tank-type water heater.
So, twenty years from now when you go to change it, it's going to be a lot less expensive
to change it because you've already done all the upgrades.
You've already got the larger gas line, you've already got the bigger meter, or bigger gas
meter to give you the more BTU's.
That is the biggest difference in a tank-type water heater and a tankless per the installation
is the amount of gas it requires.
So, what makes it more efficient then?
In the long run, even though that tankless water heater draws 200,000 BTUs it only calls
for hot water when you're calling for hot water.
When you go open up that valve to call for hot water, that's when that water heater kicks
on and starts making hot water.
Now, if you go on vacation next week your *tank-type* water heater, unless you turn
it down to vacation is going to keep making hot water at whatever temperature you've got
set all week long.
So as soon as you come home you can jump in the shower and you can have hot water.
Great thing.
The thing is you're paying to keep that water hot.
A tankless water heater on the other hand, when you come home and turn on that hot water,
that tankless water heater is going to fire up, just like your regular water heater, but
it has not been firing up to stay hot all week long.
Now, does it take more gas?
Absolutely, a tankless water heater is rated at almost 200,000 BTUs an hour.
A regular tank-type water heater is normally 40,000-50,000 BTUs an hour.
But if you look at it, a tank-type water heater kicks on, you know, three to five, six times
a day depending on your efficiency.
How many BTUs are you spending for that to run to keep that water hot all day, where
a tankless water heater may be more BTUs but it's only kicking on for that five or ten
minutes that you're in the shower and then it's shutting back off.
So, when you look at it like that, the efficiency rating, well worth it.
The tankless water heater yes it's going to cost you more to install, mainly because of
the gas line, could be because of the vent line.
There's some different things, maybe a way to mount it.
There's a lot of different things there, but guys, as for an efficiency rating , you can't
beat it and you are going to see an ROI.
I hope you like these videos, I hope that we're answering questions that you have.
We've got our blog here with more information, we've got different links in our information
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My name is Roger Wakefield with Texas Green Plumbing, saving you money one drop at a time.