Tankless water heaters put forward many advantages over tank-style water heaters. Those advantages compelled most homeowners in the US to migrate from their conventional style heating solutions to new tankless water heating systems.
This water heater provides hot water only when the tap is turned on; it consumes less energy and has the dimension of a suitcase, making it very convenient to store. As we progress ahead in this article, you will get to know what actually a tankless water heater is and how they work.
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What are Tankless Water Heaters?
In a house, warm and hot water has equal importance as drinking water has. To do the laundry or to take a shower, you are going to need hot water. Most of the homeowners in the US do have a hot water supply in their house, and a tanked water heater fulfills those hot water needs. But now, more and more homeowners are choosing a tankless water heater.
As the name denotes, this type of water heater doesn’t have a tank to store the water. They heat the water when someone turns on the hot water tap. This makes them more efficient than the tank water heaters because the standby losses are eliminated. Standby losses are those when the water keeps getting heated even when it is not utilized.
They offer many advantages, but they don’t come cheap, these units are more expensive than the tank water heaters.
Now, let’s see how they work.
How Tankless Water Heaters Work?
The working of a tankless water heater is simple. As you know, it only supplies hot water only when the tap is turned on. The turning of a tap is the trigger that turns on the heaters.
The main components of a tankless water heater, which makes its function possible, are a control panel, fan, and different valves and sensors.
As soon as the hot water tap is turned on, the water will rush into the heater. There is a flow sensor installed on the cold water pipe that will detect the flow and give the signal to the control panel.
Now, the control panel starts the fan and the gas valve, which results in the mixture of air and gas inside the burner, it is ignited there, and the energy to heat the water is produced. The tankless water heaters are available in two types; they either work on electricity or gas.
If the heater uses the electricity, then the heating element will be turned on. The water flows through a stacked arrangement of pipes, and these pipes are placed inside a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger is the place where the energy of burned gases is transferred to the water. Water comes out from the heat exchanges and flows to the hot water tap.
In the process, a temperature sensor will detect the temperature of outcoming hot water. And if it is not to the desired point, then adjustments will be made to bring it to the desired level. After that, when the tap is turned off, the water will be at a standstill, the flow sensor will notify the control panel that hot water is no longer needed. You see, there will be no standby loss as in the case of the tank water heater. This makes them more efficient.
If you want heated water only at one or two outlets, then small units can adequately do the job. For a large house, you are going to need a bigger unit. The small units are the point of units, and they mostly work on electricity and have a low flow rate. While the units which can supply the hot water to the entire house are known as whole-house units and these units are bigger and expensive.
Most of the homeowners prefer to install one or more small units to different points than having one big unit. This is because small units can be installed close to the point of use; this eliminates the time which the water takes to travel from the heater to the tap. It can be as long as 2 to 3 minutes if the house is big.
Summary
So, a tankless water heater is a small and expensive water heater that supplies the water on demand and saves much on your electricity bills. The working is simple, and if anything malfunctions, then the parts are readily available in the market. It makes them easy to repair.
It is a good choice over conventional tank-type water heaters if you are thinking of a replacement.
Read our reviews of the best tankless water heaters here.
