Tankless water heaters are not exactly a “new” technology. In fact, the first tankless model was invented in the late 19th century. But it wasn’t until fairly recently that they developed to the point where they were efficient and reliable enough to become competitive with the conventional storage tank water heater. With continuing advances, tankless water heaters are now a popular alternative for home installation, and we can expect to see their popularity grow every year.
But as the technology becomes more widely available, customers have more questions about tankless water heaters. We’ll answer a few of the more frequent concerns people have regarding installing a tankless water heater.
“Will the water from a tankless system be hot enough?”
It can be just as hot as the water from a storage tank system. The thermostat on the tankless water heater allow you to set the temperature, and you can set it to 120°F, which is the same heat level on most tank water heaters. However, because of the high energy efficiency of a tankless system (it doesn’t keep losing heat from a standing supply of heated water) you can actually set it temperature a bit lower and still receive the same water temperature from your taps!
“Will it take too long for the energy savings to payback the installation costs?”
It’s true that tankless water heaters have higher install costs than conventional systems. The energy savings will offset this and payback the installation within 3 to 7 years. When you take into account that tankless systems can last 20 years or more, you’ll have plenty of time to reap those energy savings.
“Is a tankless system really reliable?”
The promise of receiving an unlimited supply of hot water does sound a bit too good to be true. And for the water heaters of yesteryear there was indeed an issue with general system reliability. However, the current state of tankless technology has made these water heaters just as reliable as standard tank systems.
If you want to know more about tankless water heaters, call Modern Plumbing Industries, Inc. in Orlando, FL. We carry the quality Navien tankless gas water heaters.