If you’ve made the decision to switch to tankless water heating in your home, you may be wondering what’s next. Tankless water heaters come in a variety of styles, each with its own suite of benefits. Here are a few installation types, their benefits, and some things to consider:
Point-of-use systems. These systems are small enough to fit under a cupboard, delivering near-instant hot water directly to a faucet or shower-head. Because they’re small units, however, they have a lower flow rate capacity, and installing them directly on one sink or tub means you’ll have to find other solutions for the rest of your home.
Point-of-use systems are good low-cost solutions when you only need hot water for a single sink, shower or tub, or when you want to make sure the hot water supply to one appliance won’t be drained by another. For example, running a dishwasher may strain the capacity of a whole-house tankless water heating system, causing a shower to run cool. Installing a point-of-use heater for your tub will ensure it gets a constant supply of hot water, no matter what other appliances in your home are doing.
Whole-house systems. These centralized systems provide hot water for your entire home, avoiding the hassle of installing multiple point-of-use systems. However, if you’re going with a gas-fueled whole-house system (as opposed to electric-heated), you may need a bigger gas line and new venting, which will increase the cost of an installation. Because they’re not installed directly at a faucet or showerhead, you’ll also experience a slight delay between turning on your hot water and getting it; any cool water sitting in the pipes has to come out before your hot water does.
Outdoor systems. Really just another type of whole-house installation, an outdoor system eliminates the need to install new ventilation for a whole-house system by installing the unit outside. However, this will lengthen the piping distance between the heating unit and your faucets, resulting in longer wait times for your water.
Many homeowners combine a whole-house system with one or more point-of-use tankless units for remote or special water uses.
If you have questions about which tankless water heating system will be right for your home, contact us at Donald P. Dick Air Conditioning. We provide superior HVAC services for the Fresno area.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in the greater Fresno, California area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about tankless water heating and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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