A normal water heater will constantly heat water, storing it in its tank even when nobody is using it. The problem with a water heater that has a tank, aside from cost, is that one can easily run out of hot water. What a pain! Tankless water heaters only heat water when it is needed, and they heat it directly. Doing so not only provides more room in the location of your water heater, but it allows for less heat loss commonly associated with storage-based water heaters.

Here are the three basic steps a tankless water heater takes to heat your water.

1. As a hot water tap is turned on, cold water is sent through a pipe and into the tankless unit.
2. Depending on whether your heater is powered by electricity or gas, the water heater will use an electric element or a gas burner to heat the water.
3. As such you will have a constant supply of hot water (about 2 to 5 gallons per minute) – perfect for those mornings where you just have to have a long, toasty shower to accompany the start of a new day. In order to use a tankless heater for multiple sources of hot water, however, one should have a larger unit installed.

While tankless water heaters are rather expensive (up to three times the cost of a regular water heater), using them can save up to 50 percent of your annual energy costs if installed at each hot water outlet! The more localized tankless water heaters purchased, the more money can be saved in your future. Furthermore, if you typically use a large amount, over eighty six gallons, of water each day you should consider a tankless water heater large enough to support the need of hot water throughout your whole house. If you are interested in instantaneous hot water, you should consider calling your local plumber to get the details on having a tankless water heater installed.