We hope that you will find our 6 tips on converting your home to a tankless electric water heater useful. Before, we provide those tips we explain why the changeover from an immersion heater can be a good, money-saving, project for many homeowners.

Why Convert Your Home to a Tankless Electric Water Heater?

Many homeowners that do not have access to a natural gas supply still wish to reduce their power bills, and at the same time be more “green” in their energy use. One option, although dependent to an extent upon the voltage of the power supply to your home, is to replace a hot water tank and immersion heater with a tankless electric water heater.

A hot water tank fitted with an immersion heater is inefficient especially for those that leave their homes unoccupied for most of the day. No matter how well they are insulated with a thick jacket against heat loss, they always lose some heat. If the tank of hot water sits for a long while between the hot water being heated and needed (i.e. when the hot tap is run), the wasted heat can be significant. It costs money to waste heat, and the lost energy raises the carbon emissions which are blamed for much of the global warming which is taking place.

A tankless electric water heater heats the water instantaneously when you run the hot water. It only heats the water you need, so the heat loss from hot water being stored in a tank is entirely eliminated. So, this can be a really big advantage and a significant saving say for one person living alone who may be at work for 8 hours each day. If they also eat out, it saves storing hot water when all the hot water needed each day is for a quick shower each morning and a before-bedtime wash.

Don’t forget that nowadays dishwashers and washing machines have already converted to being cold-fill appliances for exactly the same energy efficiency reason!

Making the Switch to a Tankless Electric Water Heater

To make the switch to tankless heaters you can begin by asking your plumber for advice on which brand is best and what the difference will be in your electric bill. Having a tankless heater makes sense since it takes a little more energy to get the heater up and running. It is also important to note that since this is a tankless model you will be buying two of them and that they will require a little more maintenance.

Here are some tips for switching over your heater to a tankless one. These tips will often work but whether they do work will depend upon the brand and the design of the tankless heater you will be switching over. Some require a vent pipe to be routed differently which can be done in some instances. It is very difficult with most models to get the vent pipe to fit correctly without having to make some modifications to the venting system. However, any professional plumber should be able to do this.

5 Tips on Converting to a Tankless Electric Water Heater

1. A tankless electric water heater is much smaller than the hot water tank it replaces so you might want one just to release some useful space in your home.
2. Check to see if the heater will still get hot water with a built-in flush valve. If not then you will need to add one as mentioned in the heater manufacturer’s instructions. The flush valve adds cold water to the vent piping and if the hot water will still get cold then this would be the easiest way to fix the problem.
3. If the built-in flush valve will not work then the fix is to run a hose from the water meter to the bottom of the tank, or the water from the tank will not get to the flush valve.
4. If the built-in flush valve will work then install it and run a hose from the other end of the tankless heater to the other end of the tank.
5. The other type of tankless water heater you can find at your local hardware store or big box store will not need a vent pipe to get hot water to the flush valve.
6. If you are looking at one of these models then the vent pipe should come before the hot water pipes and follow the line from the tank to the flush valve.

Once you have the vent pipe installed and a full check has been done on all the plumbing runs and all necessary electrical safety checks have been completed, the unit is ready to be hooked up to the water and re-repressurised from the water main. Once the water is flowing into the unit, there are no leaks, and it is delivering hot water, you will know it is working correctly.

But to test that the vent pipe is working and therefore to tell if the unit is working correctly you may need to add a drain tube from the tank down to the unit bottom. If the unit drains freely then the vent is working and you are done. If the tankless water heater does not drain properly then there could be a problem with the vent pipe. Once the plumber has fixed and tested, the vent pipe it is safe to plug the unit in and start using it.

For more plumbing improvements you may find the plumbing information available at the plumber Glasgow southside website here useful.