Things to Know About Endless Hot Water Heaters

Because tankless water heaters outperform their conventional counterparts easily by 20 percent or more. Like storage water heaters, tankless water heaters provide hot water on demand but they do so without storing huge quantities of hot water. In fact, as their name suggests, they have no storage capacity at all.

Tankless water heaters for household use are attractive, compact units that mount on the wall in a central location in our homes or near the main hot water demand centers. The heart and soul of all tankless water heaters is a device called a heat exchanger—a combustion chamber in which cold water is quickly brought up to temperature. The heat exchanger transfers heat from the burner to the water, heating it instantaneously. A flue pipe vents unburned gases and pollutants like carbon monoxide out of the house.
 
Here’s how a tankless water heater works: when hot water is required—for example, when someone turns on a hot water faucet—a water flow sensor in the tankless water heater sends a signal to a central control module in the unit. This tiny computer, in turn, sends signals to an electronically controlled gas valve in the gas manifold. The valve opens and allows natural gas or propane to flow into the combustion chamber of the heat exchanger. The gas is ignited by a pilot light or by a spark from an electronic ignition device. Cold water flowing through the pipe in the heat exchanger is immediately brought up to the desired temperature. As soon as the hot water faucet is turned off, however, the water flow through the water heater ceases and the flame goes out. The net result is that you heat only the water you need at any one time

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Did you know...

• Tankless water heaters cost more than their conventional counterparts and are a bit more challenging to install. (This isn’t a job for most do-it-yourself ers.) However, they do provide significant advantages over storage water heaters. As just noted, they heat only the water needed at any one moment. As a result, they are usually at least 20-50 percent more efficient than standard water heaters. That means they provide the same amount of hot water as a storage water tank, but use 20 percent less fuel. Utility bills will be 20-50 percent lower, too.
   Because there’s no standby loss, they also produce less waste heat. In the summer, that means less internal heat gain and lower cooling bills.
• Another huge advantage of tankless water heaters is that they outlast conventional water heaters.They’re typically designed to last as long as a conventional furnace or boiler—twenty years or more .Moreover, tankless water heaters are easy to repair. If a part goes bad, it can be replaced. You don’t have to throw the unit out and replace it with a brand new water heater, as you do with a conventional storage water heater, when something goes wrong.

• Modern gas fired tankless water heaters are the best alternative available to today's homeowners to reduce their residential energy consumption.
• A typical gas fired tankless water heater costs about 2-1/2 times as much as a standard tank water heater. However it will pay for itself in just a few years or less, and will last twice as long a tank. To determine what tankless will do in your home click here.
• If you are considering a tankless water heater Rinnai is clearly your best choice. On average a new Rinnai is installed somewhere in North America every 3.75 minutes.