If you are like most people you are very familiar with the old style of hot water heater but maybe less familiar with a tankless water heater. A standard water heater is a big or small tank that allows cold water to come into the tank, become heated and maintained at a set temperature, and then be supplied to the various faucets in the house when they are turned on.

On the other hand a tankless water heater doesn’t have any storage space for water, so no tank, but instead uses an energy efficient heating process to provide “on demand” hot water to any faucet in your house connected to the system.

The Basic Steps to Hot Water with a Tankless Water Heater

Like a traditional hot water tank a tankless water heater has a cold water intake and a heating fuel or power source that is typically propane, natural gas or even electricity.

The cold water comes into the tankless water heater when you turn on a hot water faucet anywhere in the system. This is detected by a flow sensor that signals the system that cold water is coming into the unit. This causes a computerized switch to turn the burner on which in turn draws the fuel source into the burner and ignites it to create the heat.

The heat from the burner transfers, almost instantaneously, to the heat exchanger unit. The water circulates through the heat exchanger in small diameter tubes that allow it to heat to the pre-set temperature. The hot water, at the set temperature, flows through the system to the faucet. The burner and the fan in the system stay on as long as the flow sensor detects the water coming into the system.

When you turn off the tap the flow sensor sends a signal to the computer that shuts off the burner and stops the system.

The Benefits of a Tankless Water Heater

Besides just being smaller and not having to deal with a hot water tank that will need to be replaced every 8 or so years, a tankless water heater has other benefits as well.

You will find with a tankless water heater since it is only on when you need hot water, your energy bills will drop substantially. You will also never run out of hot water since there it is always heating the water “on demand”. Also, without the worry of scale and dirt build-up, rust and other issues the tankless water heater can easily last up 20 years or more with warranties of 10 to 15 years for many models.