Hot water plays an important role in everyone’s life, but many people require substantial quantities of hot water, and that results in higher energy use. Ask yourself some of the following questions:
- When I take a bath, do I use hot water sparingly, or is the tub completely full?
- Do I take short showers, or do I stay in the shower until the hot water gets cold?
- Do I repair leaky faucets, or simply let them drip and waste hot water?
- Do I operate washers and dishwashers with a full load, or just whenever convenient?
- Are my hot water pipes insulated?
It is important to note that hot water usage is the second-largest energy consumer in the household behind heating and cooling.
Did You Know?
Tankless water heaters are ideal for applications where space is at a premium or in small vacation homes, and can serve quite effectively in point-of-use applications. However, their use as the central source of hot water in a residence should be carefully considered.
While tankless water heaters offer some modest energy savings over storage water heaters (possibly as little as $36 per year for electric water heaters), these minimal gains are at the expense of substantially higher initial purchase costs, higher installation costs (upgraded power requirements), higher maintenance costs, and possible lifestyle changes to accommodate the limited fl ow rate output of tankless water heaters. For example: taking a shower while washing clothes could require as much as 6 gallons per minute of hot water. It’s unlikely that any electric tankless water heater could supply the heating capacity to meet this demand.