I’ve researched for hours and am a bit confused with how to decipher the language, lacking context/background knowledge.
Thank you!
(I need a new water heater, wanting to go from tank to tankless. Its currently in the house under the stairs of bottom floor (no basement), 2.5 bathrooms in use (3rd no one uses much), 4 people, 3 story townhome, of any of this info is relevant… not asking for opinion just how it all works)
In: Engineering
A tank water heater holds a certain amount of water in the tank as hot water. Either an electrical element or a gas fed flame is used to heat the water in the tanks. There’s also water heaters that have a heat pump that can draw in heat from outside the tank. Because the water is sitting in a tank the water heater has to periodically heat the water. Even if you don’t use any hot water it will still have to heat the water in the tank because the water slowly cools down. On the side of the water heater on a yelllow it tells you how many gallons of hot water you will get in one hour.
A tankless water heater heats the water as it passes through the water heater. This means it only heats water when you use hot water. These are rated for how much hot water you can get per minute.
When going from a tank water heater to a tankless you have to consider between electric and gas. A tankless electric heater uses a lot of electricity at one time, you might not even be able to get enough electricity to it. A gas tankless water heater might need a bigger gas pipe run to even if there’s already a gas pipe there.
You need to talk to a plumber that installs both systems to know all the gotchas of switching from a tank to a tankless system, and find an honest plumber if you can. Don’t try to install a new water heater yourself.
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