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People often recommend tankless water heaters as a way to help you save money and energy. But does a tankless water heater save money, or is it all just hype and a case of the grass always seeming greener on the other side?
Being confident that you’ll get what you expect from a tankless water heater is important. After all, many – if not most – people only get a tankless water heater with the expectation that the long-term savings will help them offset the not-insignificant upfront costs.
It’s important to understand that these appliances are highly efficient and *do* have the ability to help you save in the long run. However, it can also be more costly in some cases, depending on your household needs and expenditures.
The key to saving money with a tankless water heater is choosing a model that suits your home and lifestyle, and the following questions will help you make the right choice.
How old is your water heater?
If you’ve noticed your energy bills stacking up, your old water heater could be to blame.
Traditional water heaters have to heat water constantly in their tanks. This ensures you have hot water when you need it. That means your water heater is using energy at all times, even while you sleep.
Tankless water heaters help save money because they heat water only on demand. They don’t have large tanks that need to be kept hot constantly; rather, their advanced heating technology effectively uses energy only when you need hot water.
This is an excellent way to save on your energy bills every month and reduce your carbon footprint. As noted by Natural Resources Canada, “An ENERGY STAR certified tankless water heater uses 30% less energy on average than a storage tank.”
How frequently are you using hot water?
Tankless water heaters don’t use energy as regularly as traditional water tank heaters. However, when they do use energy to heat water, they can use significantly higher amounts of it.
In our post ‘Benefits of a Tankless Water Heater,’ we noted: “Typical water heaters use 40,000-50,000 BTU of energy throughout the day to heat water and keep the water warm in its tank. Whereas tankless water heaters can use up to 199,000 BTU of energy, but range from 15,000-199,000 BTU, depending on the gallons of water per minute used.”
This means that, if you use large amounts of hot water throughout the day, operating a tankless water heater could be far more expensive for you than a traditional water tank heater.
The takeaway? Consider how much hot water you use on a typical day. If you have hot water running for a significant portion of the day, it might be a smarter decision, financially, to upgrade to a more energy efficient water tank heater instead.
How often do you run multiple appliances that need hot water?
When you look at the product specifications for your tankless water heater, it is important to pay attention to the Gallons Per Minute, or GPM (some companies also call this the ‘flow rate’.)
This is the amount of hot water the water heater can produce each minute. Manufacturers typically make water heaters in different sizes and heating power levels to accommodate different GPM needs.
Most tankless water heaters can range from 4-8 GPM. 4 gallons per minute is perfect for smaller apartments, whereas homes and townhomes see better performance with systems that are designed to output 6-8 GPM.
In especially large homes with multiple bathrooms and appliances, we often suggest installing more than one tankless water heater — in many cases they can be connected in a sequence to boost the amount of available hot water in a home.
How long will you be using the system for?
Tankless water heaters may seem to be a bit costly initially, however, they have exceptional value.
Tankless water heaters last between 15-20 years. That’s twice as long as the average hot water tank lifespan, which is only 6-8 years.
Overall, you spend less in the long run with tankless water heaters. Their condensing system is designed with efficiency and longevity in mind. This means that this will be a lasting investment for many years to come.
Get a professional assessment
Feeling a little overwhelmed by all of the factors to consider? It’s not just you! Even for people who know they want to switch to a tankless water heater, picking the right model isn’t always easy.
If you have questions or need help picking out the right unit, we’re always ready to help. It’s as easy as calling us at (604) 879-1415 or sending us a message online. Our experts can help you figure out whether a tankless water heater makes sense for your home and recommend a specific model to match your household’s size and water usage habits.