What Are Your Water Heater Options?

Upgrade to a gas-fired tankless water heater.

How much of your home’s energy usage involves heating water? If your home is like the average U.S. household, it’s upwards of 20 percent!

Think about how much your family depends on hot water. It’s essential for your showers and your children’s baths. You need it to wash hands, pets, laundry and dishes. It’s pretty aggravating for your showerhead to suddenly turn cold or a hot water faucet to take forever to warm up.

At LG Jordan, we help families in North Carolina’s Wake, Chatham and nearby counties get more reliable hot water for less. If you have a struggling storage tank water heater or an inefficient electric unit, we can boost your efficiency and lower your energy bills with a propane or natural gas on-demand system.

Electric vs. Gas Water Heaters

While electric water heaters may be slightly cheaper than gas-powered products, you will experience some significantly lower performance with the electric model.

• Recovery times — A recovery time tells you how long a water heater takes to heat a tank of water. Gas units are much faster than electric units. Natural gas and propane water heaters have recovery times that are half as long!
• More energy efficient — The switch from electric to gas equipment can boost efficiency by 30 percent or more!
• Operational costs —Because gas-fired water heaters are more efficient than electric models, you’ll spend less on energy each year.

As you can see, making the investment in a propane or natural gas water heater can pay off in comfort and cost savings for years to come.

Are tankless water heaters worth it?

As you might infer, a tankless water heater does not have a tank of water. Instead, it heats water on demand whenever you need it. These systems have significant advantages over traditional tank water heaters.

1. The U.S. Department of Energy says tankless water heaters can be up to 34 percent more energy efficient than storage tank systems.
2. You’ll save a lot of money with a tankless system because it avoids “standby losses” caused by reheating tanks of unused water.
3. Tankless water heaters generate virtually unlimited hot water on demand.
4. Because there is no tank corrosion, tankless systems can last 20 years or more!
5. Tankless systems take up much less room in your home.

How much can you save with a gas-powered tankless water heater?

Every North Carolina home is different. How much money you can save by upgrading to a high-efficiency water heater depends on the system you’re replacing, the fuel used by your new unit and how much hot water you typically use.

But here’s a good example of the potential savings. The Propane Education & Research Council (PERC) compared two 2,400-square-foot homes, one using an electric traditional water heater and another utilizing a propane tankless water heater. They found that a house with a propane on-demand product saved about $355 a year on energy compared to an electric water heater. With that kind of savings, you don’t have to wait long to recoup the additional installation cost.

Reach out to the LG Jordan team, and we can look at your home and tell you if a tankless water heater installation is a good idea.