Having a hot water system in your home to provide you with warm water whenever you need is essential. With that said, hot water servicing and installation should be treated as an investment and should not be done lightly.
To start with, you should find out as much as you can about hot water systems so that you can make an informed purchase. Asking the right questions will help you get the perfect system for you and will guarantee that you won’t regret your choice.
What is Its Fuel Source?
Hot water systems generally come in gas or electric. This is an important point to consider because there can be vast differences between the two types. For one thing, some places don’t have access to gas lines. This makes getting a gas hot water system a little difficult.
There are also other factors to consider like:
- Efficiency
- Environmental impact
- Output
- Costs
- Size
If you want a water heater system that produces hot water quickly and keeps it hot, for example, then gas versions would be the better choice. If you have extremely limited space, you might want to go electric.
There are hot water systems that are fueled by propane, but those come with their own issues. Stability and safety are just two of these.
What Can You Use It For?
Some hot water systems can be incredibly limited in what you can use them for. You would have to choose between the bathroom or the kitchen, for example, but not both. Then there are heaters that will give you access to hot water for every household need. For the latter types, the options are almost always gas hot water systems.
As you might expect, this is a crucial point to consider when shopping for a water heater. Say you don’t wash a lot of dishes too often. Or you only use your washing machine on the weekends. If that’s the case, your heating system won’t need to be that big.
This would then narrow your choices and the number of things you’d need to consider. Speed is still an essential factor, though, along with the amount of space that you have.
Where Will You Put It?
If you do need a new hot water system then you should have a place to put it. This should be at the top of your list of considerations when shopping for a unit. The location of your hot water unit is an important factor and should be considered when installing a new system.
Assuming that you do have plenty of space to accommodate your hot water system, the next issue to resolve is where exactly it will go. On top of that, there is also the question of whether or not there used to be a heater in your home before you moved in.
If so, you might be tempted to just use that area again, but this is not necessarily the best idea. You would need to have a professional take a look at it to confirm its suitability. There have been plenty of examples of homeowners trying to force water heating systems into incompatible locations.
Too many gas hot water repairs can set you back quite a bit. You want to avoid that to save on costs, time, and stress.
How Much Hot Water Do You Need?
Along with everything else already discussed, you also need to consider how much hot water you are likely to use. This will determine the size of the tank or the heater that you will get.
If there are a lot of people in your household and all of them will be using hot water in one way or another, a huge tank and a powerful heater will be needed. You don’t want to wait for minutes or hours in order to get hot water again when it’s all used up, do you?
You could also imagine how annoying it would be if you can’t use hot water in one area of your home because it’s being used somewhere else. You shouldn’t have to wait for a family member to finish showering before you are allowed to wash dishes.
Then there is the matter of usage in a given period of time. This will depend on what kinds of plumbing fixtures you have. A regular showerhead will use less water than a high-flow rain shower, for example. As you can imagine, you will use up more hot water with the latter if you use hot water for the same amount of time.
What Type of Storage Unit Do You Need?
Last but not least, you need to think about what kind of storage unit the hot weather system will come with. The most popular type right now is the tank, which makes a lot of sense. It can hold a lot of water, can keep it hot for a long time, and is virtually universal in its design.
This makes things like maintenance, repairs, and hot water system replacement much easier for technicians.
Then there are the on-demand or tankless hot water systems that are available in the market. As the names might suggest, they don’t come with a tank that is constantly full of water. Instead, the water is heated as it passes through the system,
Make no mistake, though. This type is not nearly as instantaneous as you might think. In many cases, the water doesn’t reach acceptable temperatures for upwards of 15 minutes. Some examples of this type of heater don’t even get the water hot enough for more demanding uses.
So, make your choice carefully.
Conclusion
A hot water system can seem like a blessing when you just want to go home and relax after a taxing, tiring, and sweaty day outside. The temperature and the flow of the water can be quite soothing. Hot water also makes other chores much easier like washing dishes and clothes.
With that said, you need to choose your hot water system wisely. It needs to fit your needs, your daily use, the size of your home, and your location. Remember that a hot water system is an investment. One that can serve you a long time if done well.
Contact Service It today and we’ll help you out in getting the right Hot Water System and installing them for you.