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Energy Savings
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Tankless Heaters for Energy Conservation
Did you ever get confused with what kind of water tank will you use for your house? There are two types of water heater: the tank type and tankless water heater. Each type may be using natural gas, propane or electric to provide hot water. And of course, inasmuch as heating is involved, the energy consumption of each would need to be taken into consideration. Each has its own advantage and disadvantage with the energy consumption.
Let’s try to compare each with the energy saving we can derive from them.
The conventional water heaters or the storage type water heaters are the most common type of water heater in the United States. Though they may be very common, they may also be the most efficient since they would need to maintain a large tank of water hot overtime, regardless if the water would be used or not.
What happen with traditional water tank heaters is that just when the water in the tank is hot and you turn on the faucet, the cold water will go to the tank of hot water. This will lower the temperature on the tank and would entail a large amount of energy to re-heat the water and achieve the desired temperature. This is actually an inefficient consumption of energy.
While a tankless or instantaneous or demand water heaters, helps in saving energy. This is because energy will only be used when you would need hot water. There is no need to store water in large tank.
For tank types, you can save more if you will be using a gas tank rather than electric. Comparing with electric units, gas heaters can consume roughly $25 less per month to operate. Electric tank heaters are the most expensive method of heating water. It was noted that on the average, water tank heaters are 1/3 less expensive to operate than electric. Also, using gas tank heaters have faster recovery rate than electric tank heaters. This means that with gas, you can reduce the energy requirement to heat and store the water. Electrical water heaters need to draw very high power so that the water becomes hot quickly to the preset temperature.
And for tankless water heaters, most often the gas tankless heaters are also preferred than the electric, as much as the energy saving is concerned. Aside from it can save as much as 1/3 compared to electricity, it can heat water at a very high flow rate. Also, gas tankless water heater can heat more than twice as much water in an hour than electric tankless heaters.
While it is true that there are just few energy savings you can get from a gas tank water heater compared to gas tankless water heater, still the amount of hot water it can produce in an instant should be noted. A gas tank can store 50 gallons of hot water but could actually produce 40 gallons since it needs to re-heat the water as you turn on the shower or faucet. But a gas tankless water heater can produce endless hot water at a very high flow rate with almost the same energy consumption.
Here are actually estimated savings you can get from different water tanks.
11 to 18 percent energy savings of electric tankless heater compared to electric tank heater.
24 to 35 percent energy savings over natural gas tank heater.
64 to 69 percent energy savings of natural gas tankless heater as against electric tank system.
Make sure to take this very important information into consideration when choosing the best water heater system in your own homes.
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