All gas fired appliances have a BTU rating. As a licensed plumber we have to calculate total load on your homes gas meter. We have to add up all BTU’s in your home thendtermine pipe size/ lenth/distances to ensure your gas meter is large enough as well as ensure your existing gas piping is large enough, If not we can easily increase to ensure your home is properly sized. An undersized gas line stresses all gas appliances and will also shut down and/pr provide error codes for a newly installed tankless heater.
Adding 200,000 BTU for a tankless heater from a standard 40,000 BTU tank type heater requires a meter upgrade. We handle this through AGL as a NGAD- Natural Gas Advantage Dealer.
See picture, normally the first four digits of the heaters serial number will show the waters age. Te normal life of a tank type heater is 10-12 years but life will short if a recirculating pump is installed or homes incoming water pressure above 80psi. ( bad pressure valve)
With this option, an additional pipe that is designated for hot water is installed in your home’s plumbing. This system creates a loop from the water heater to the faucet and back again. The unused hot water is drawn back through this loop by the pump, so when you turn on your hot water faucets, you get hot water quickly. Water is not left in the pipes to get cold and you waste less water because you don’t have to wait.
You may be wondering how this effects your gas and energy costs. If the water heater is running continuously with water looping endlessly, doesn’t it cost more? Not necessarily.
Many pumps are designed with sensors and timers. The sensor shuts the pump off once hot water has made a complete loop. A timer allows you to control when the pump is active. You can set it to shut off automatically at night, while you’re at work, or when you’re on vacation.
FIVE COMMON TANKLESS PROBLEMS
All tankless water heaters are engineered to operate at maximum efficiency 24/7/365 for home and business owners. But occasional error codes can appear on the units. These codes can alert homeowners to problems that go unnoticed until complete unit failure. On the other hand, the meaning and import of individual codes may not be immediately available to them. All can be prevented by having annual maintenance.
(1) A combustion abnormality caused by an improper mixture of air and fuel. It can occur from an insufficient gas supply, blockage in a fuel vent, or debris in the fan motor.
This issue requires the skills of a licensed plumbing and/or heating contractor to check gas pressures, venting length and dip switches for the cause of the issue. When you see this code 90 contact us right away!
(2) An improper circuit-board settings for a water heater. This can happen if a jumper connection or a dip switch is changed while power is supplied to the heater. An improperly programmed circuit board could also create the issue.
When this happens, unplug the heater for 30 seconds and then plug it back in. If this does not resolve the issue, please contact us.
(3) Sometimes an issue with condensate drainage. Condensing water heaters use a drain line equipped with a neutralizer to remove the condensate. If this line is blocked or proper drain piping is not used, the burner could flood.
The typical fix for this error code is to clean out the container and drain line of any debris or blockages.
(4) An ignition failure, without which no water will be heated. Possible causes: an insufficient gas supply, problems with air flow, or debris on the ignition plug.
(5) A scale buildup in your water heater. Scale decreases heat-transfer efficiency and will make the heater burn hotter to compensate.
Annual maintenance, using a descaling procedure or water softener, call to have unit flushed by a professional.
A water heater is an integral part of every home and likely something you do not think about until it stops working. Since the typical lifespan of a water heater is between 8 and 12 years, it is likely that every homeowner will have to replace at least one over the years.
There are two basic fuel types for a standard water heater, gas and electricity. Both have positive and negative attributes to consider. We outline the differences between them below so that you can make an informed decision on which one will be right for your home. If water pressure is above 80 psi or pressure regulating valve in home has failed then tank glass lining or tank rupture can be expected much sooner.
Footprint=Size impacts hot water heaters in two ways. First, most people are aware of the size in terms of gallons. The more water a tank holds, the larger it will be in general. Both electric and gas heaters come in multiple sizes from 20 to 100 gallons. But electric heaters are also available as point of origin heaters. You install this very small water heater directly at a faucet to provide hot water on demand for things like tea. Second, the amount of space that a hot water heater takes up in your basement or utility room will be slightly less for an electric heater. Gas heaters need to vent, so they are a little bigger around and have pipes that need to exit your home, thus restricting their placement. Electric heaters can be more compact, which gives you more placement options.
Hot Water Availability There are also a few things to consider about the hot water availability between the two options. The first is the energy supply because not every home has access to a gas line, but nearly every home has electricity. As long as you do not have a power outage, you will always have access to hot water with an electric heater. However, gas heaters can continue to heat your water even with an outage, provided there is no disruption in the gas line.
The other consideration to make is how much hot water the tank can produce in the first hour of use, which is called the first hour rating (FHR). Both gas and electric tanks have a range of FHR values. A higher number means there will be more water available quickly. However, gas heaters tend to heat up faster than electric heaters, so you can often find higher FHR on a gas heater.
Energy-Efficiency While gas hot water heaters cost less to run due to the lower cost of natural gas, electric heaters are actually more efficient. This is due to the way that the heaters operate. A gas heater must vent the spent gas, which also takes some of the heat with it. An electric heater uses nearly all the energy it receives converting it into hot water, so you have less waste. High energy-efficiency gas heaters exist and use significantly less energy overall. These are the only type of tank heater that has an Energy Star label. Electric tank heaters are not available in a high energy-efficiency style.