Here’s a great water heater info graphic showing different facts and stats regarding your homes water heating source. Keep in mind that this is from the US Department of Energy and thus, a little skewed.
There are a few things I see that could be discussed a little further here in Ontario with regards to the type of system.
Click to Enlarge
Storage Tank
The storage tank water heater graphic shows a con consisting of standby heat loss. Yes, that’s a fact. The solution they suggest is to look for an insulated tank… My gosh, you were ripped off if the water heater in your home has no insulation! The real solutions could be as follows:
- look at a tankless upgrade
- add a hot water tank blanket
- look at more efficient standard tanks
Tankless
The tankless shows negatives consisting of limited flow rates and potential savings that don’t offset costs. The solution suggested by the Government was to purchase two two tankless units and hook them together to increase flow rates. That seems pretty expensive considering you’re trying to reduce costs.
Properly sizing a tankless for location, demands, and climate (like that within the Greater Toronto Area) will ensure more than adequate flow rates.
Heat Pump
I’m not much of an expert on heat pump systems; wouldn’t it just make sense to exhaust the cold air outside so as not to add additional stress on home heating systems? Maybe if someone reads this and knows the answer you can shoot me an email. Ontario temperatures are pretty cold in the winter so you wouldn’t want to be adding more cold air to your home.
Solar Water Heaters
These are great systems but as the info graphic suggests the price is high. The reason for this is that here in Southern Ontario we need to have a backup system. This usually consists of A small tankless. Effectively the tankless would run on cloudy and snowy days when the solar energy may not be able to heat sufficient water.
Tankless Coil and Indirect
We have cool incoming water temperatures and these systems simply aren’t installed in Ontario very often.
Final Water Heater Stats
The last few stats talk about how there are 27 million homes in the US that have water heaters more than 10 years old. That’s roughly 20% of homes. If the same stat holds true here in Ontario then we have roughly a million tanks in the double digit age range. These systems drop in efficiency every year and slowly but steadily cost you more to heat your water. Its a very slow but steady increase that adds up.
The very best suggesting is on the very bottom of the graphic.
“DO YOUR RESEARCH EARLY, Find the one that best fits your needs”
I couldn’t agree more with that statement – If you are looking to upgrade you’re tankless or get out of your water heater contract give us a call or contact us here.
We offer free consultations helping you determine the best solutions for your home and your family.
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