How To Buy The Perfect Water Heater...
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Do you want to purchase a new tankless water heater?, Should you buy a propane gas, natural gas or electric? You can make this decision by taking a look at the tables below for help in estimating water heating costs.
Which water heater is better? - The propane or natural gas tankless?
Do not fall for the sales calls made by water heater salesmen who only want to push their particular brands onto the market. The water heater salesmen do not usually consider the variable energy costs associated with the various water heaters.
It is not easy to say that system "1" is better than system "2" without doing the necessary calculations... In this case never accept that tankless hot water heaters are better than storage hot water heaters just because of energy efficiency.
Look AtEnergy Factor and First Hour Rating. you need to know these things...
Unscrupulous water heater salesmen confuse consumers by claiming that the energy factor...
The answer to the question of which water heater you should buy is also dependent on where you are staying in America. By looking at the table below it is clear that electricity costs differ by state. New England is roughly 50% more expensive than other places in the US.
Other unscrupulous water heater salesmen confuse consumers by claiming that the energy factor of a hot water heater is 35% greater than that for another sort of water heater implying that 35% less energy will be used .... such an advancement is not equal to the amount of energy you will save. It will be far much less than 35%.
When looking for a water heater, it is not always a matter of which unit saves the more energy either. You have to consider other important hot water heater considerations such as installation costs, (new or retrofit), space considerations, maintenance and availability of fuel source. There are many other factors that you must also consider.
If you choose gas to heat your hot water always go for natural gas and stay away from LPG or propane gas. Other people use both types of gases. Electric tankless heaters cost little to install. The electric tankless water heaters have very high energy factors but electricity does costs a little more...
There are many other factors that you must also consider when shopping for a water heater...
If installation, maintenance costs and on demand peak flow rates of hot water are not important then it is probable that a tankless hot water heater will be a better choice purely based upon efficiency factors.
This site will provide you with impartial sound advice. Once you understand the principles just go to various advertised suppliers you will find on Google for example and apply the reasoning to the products offered.
If in doubt then do detailed calculations ... they ARE NOT DIFFICULT.
Come back here for re-assurance before making any final decision.
Solar Hot Water Heaters Save Money...
Calculations for gas heaters
The energy factor is important especially in times of rising crude oil prices and is used to calculate the amount of energy used in a year as follows where you must use the cost of gas used as $ per therm (1 therm is = 100,000 BTU). Average US cost per therm is $0.6 as assumed here and used in table below.
From the table below you can estimate your annual cost taking into account your approximate water consumption per day for every day of the year and you can see in the red section the impact that Energy factor has on the total cost per year. For example take the purple line .... and compare to the bottom red line and you will see that if you use 65 gallons per day of hot water (77 degrees above cold water inlet) using an efficient .85 Energy factor unit that you will save (151.40-115.78 = $35.62) per year. Over a period of 10 years this will come to $356 saved
| Water per day in gallons | 50 | 55 | 60 | 65 | 70 |
| Annual cost 100% Energy factor | $ 70.29 | $ 77.32 | $ 84.35 | $ 91.38 | $ 98.41 |
| Energy factors impact showing annual cost of gas for different flows and different Energy factors | |||||
| 0.45 | $ 156.21 | $ 171.83 | $ 187.45 | $203.07 | $218.69 |
| 0.5 | $ 140.59 | $ 154.65 | $ 168.70 | $182.76 | $196.82 |
| 0.55 | $ 127.81 | $ 140.59 | $ 153.37 | $166.15 | $178.93 |
| 0.6 | $ 117.16 | $ 128.87 | $ 140.59 | $152.30 | $164.02 |
| 0.65 | $ 108.14 | $ 118.96 | $ 129.77 | $140.59 | $151.40 |
| 0.7 | $ 100.42 | $ 110.46 | $ 120.50 | $130.54 | $140.59 |
| 0.75 | $ 93.72 | $ 103.10 | $ 112.47 | $121.84 | $131.21 |
| 0.8 | $ 87.87 | $ 96.65 | $ 105.44 | $114.23 | $123.01 |
| 0.85 | $ 82.70 | $ 90.97 | $ 99.24 | $107.51 | $115.78 |
Note that any percentage saving in Energy Factor has a lower percentage saving effect upon the bill you will pay .... this leads to what can be considered misleading advertising.
You can read a wide range ofwater usage articles. They discuss the use of water in the house and home ... topics covered include filters, heaters, softeners and water in the garden