15 Jun Is An Electric Tankless Water Heater Right For You?

The Electric Tankless Water Heater

Tankless water heating systems are becoming more popular with many households. This is due to the general fact of their energy-efficiency- the electric tankless water heater stands out as the better option for smaller homes. The gas option may be more suitable for larger households.
Your household probably falls in the category house with three to four people at any given time. Several reasons explain why the electric option is the most suitable for these particular households. This discussion explores some of those reasons on a comparative basis.

Hot Water Usage Styles

Some homes need usage of hot water all the time. It is convenient to have an electric tankless water heater system at home. Such a system assures continuity in the supply of hot water. It heats water on the spot, generating between 5-10 gallons of shower water in one minute.
Homeowners enjoy the convenience provided by an electric water heater. For instance, they do not have to wait until a storage tank somewhere heats the water before they can use it. Thus, it helps save on time.

Need for More Space for Use or Breathability

Yes! Installing an electric tankless water heater at home creates more space. This is because they are much smaller than any other types of water heaters. Even gas water heaters are bigger.
The advantage of their small size makes it easy to hang them at any place of convenience inside the house. What this means is that multiple installations are possible within the same house.
Space comes after removing tanks that have been in use in the old water heating system, taking up a lot of space. The creation of new space means that there is more room for other installations. In any case, the space is necessary to allow breathability in the house.

Cost Efficiency Considerations

To better understand this claim, it is essential to acknowledge that the cost of changing from the old model is generally high. This is true for both the gas tankless water heater (which is even higher) and the electric tankless water heater.
Electric tankless water heaters can cost around $500 and the entire cost of installation, which involves plumbing services by a pro, not more than $1000. This is not true for the gas-powered option. The latter can sometimes cost up to 3 times what the former costs.

Although the electric systems cannot serve different points from one central system, you can still install several of them in different areas. For instance, a home with two or three bathrooms can have one for each shower. The best part is that mounting the three separate units in three separate places is that the cost is almost equivalent to or even slightly lower than installing one gas-powered system.

Safety Considerations

Installing the heating unit, which relies on a large copper heating coil to work is enough for the electric tankless water heating. That is a safer installation than say, a gas-powered heater. In this case, the system would use either propane or natural gas.
In the case of gas leakages and inflammation, a gas accident could be fatal in the home. Gas heating involves the combustion process, which may create even more toxic “greenhouse gases.” Carbon dioxide and its incomplete variations like carbon monoxide pose safety risks at home.
Emission of these gases is the reason why water-heating installations powered by methane and propane come with elaborate precautions. The more the precautions required, the more the cost. One of the precautions is installing ventilation.

Going Electric Does Not Require the Costly Ventilation

Installation of vent takes up more money and time. Yet, it does not eliminate the risk that comes with the emitted gases. Moreover, the space that gas lines take could be better if other utilities used it. Installation is more cumbersome, especially if there was no pre-existing structure for handling natural gas and propane in the house.

Need for a System that is Easy to Maintain

It may not be easy to detect where there is a fault in either the traditional tank-storage system or the tankless gas system. For the electric tankless water heater, it is possible to identify, and even repair faults. Some of the flaws are easy to repair, and where one cannot fix on DIY, they can promptly call a plumbing pro to check them out.
In any case, an electric tankless water heater has a stable design. The design is such that one requires to do very little in maintenance. For instance, the system will remain in the stable working condition provided one observes these two rituals, only once:
• Cleaning the screen filter
• Flushing the heating appliance
For the other alternative to electric heaters, which is the gas tankless heater option, maintenance can be quite demanding. One can never avoid having regular visits from technicians to check the system’s operation.

Need for Flexibility

It is easy to use an electric tankless water heater with alternative sources of energy like solar electricity, for instance. This flexibility provides the household with energy-efficient options with a resultant effect of lowering the cost of using power.
Gas prices can be higher is most instances since gas may not be commonly available in all areas. Further, the gas supply needs new supplies every time it gets depleted. In the end, the cost of paying electricity bills incurred is lower than the price of gas.
The bottom line is that a solar-powered electric water heater is cheaper to operate. You only incur initial installation costs but have no obligation to pay for electricity after that.

Conclusion

The idea of replacing the old water heating system at your home with a tankless one is excellent. You get to save more time and operating costs in the end by using any form of tankless water heating system.
Installing an electric tankless water heater has more advantages than a gas-powered water heater. In most cases, it is not safe to try and do the installation on a DIY basis. You will need to have a qualified technician do it for you. Hire trusted professional plumbers from Benjamin Franklin Plumbing for trusted professional services in any location.

Benjamin Franklin Plumbing Tyler serves the East Texas cities of Kilgore, Longview, Tyler, and Whitehouse with a team of certified plumbers. In addition to emergency plumbing repair, some of the plumbing services provided by the company include faucet repair, drain services, toilet repair, plumbing fixture installations, tub and shower installations, kitchen sink repair, faucet installation, water heater repair/replacement, and garbage disposal replacement. Call us today at (903) 730-6611 to schedule an appointment!