Tankless Hydronic Heater – 4 Benefits of Owning a Tankless Water Heater

Dec 22
21:21

2009

Rupert Smith

Rupert Smith

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Most residential homes have conventional water heaters in the 30 to 80 gallon capacity. Powered by either electricity or gas, these units pre-heat your water to the desired temperature setting and keep it available for use 24 hours a day.

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Tankless Hydronic Heater – 4 Benefits of Owning a Tankless Water Heater

This means you constantly are spending money to heat this stored water whether you are at work,Tankless Hydronic Heater – 4 Benefits of Owning a Tankless Water Heater Articles at home washing dished or sound asleep.

While modern water heater technology and tank design has reduced the number of times a heater must power on to maintain the proper temperature the basic operation remains the same. This means that if your family uses more than the average 30 gallons of hot water a day, you are in essence constantly spending money to heat up more and more water in your tank. And if you use less than the average, you are wasting money keeping water hot that you never use.

What is a Tankless Hydronic Heater?

A tankless hydronic heater is designed to act as an on-demand water heater that waits until you actually need hot water and then quickly bring the water to the right temperature. These tankless hydronic heaters or indirect water heaters as they are sometimes called are some of the the most economical and energy-efficient ways to supply hot water in a home.

How an indirect hydronic system works is easy to understand. When the hot water taps are turned on, water flows into heat exchanger unit. This triggers a water level sensor. When the water has reached a preset level, a small computer ignites the burner elements, which rapidly heats the water enclosed in the heat exchanger unit.

A typical hydronic heat exchanger uses water-filled copper tubing shaped like “fins” in order to create the maximum heat transfer possible. The water in copper tubes, once it reaches the desired temperature is then piped to the open hot water taps, via a special heat piping layout to reduce heat loss.

Once the taps are turned off the heater shuts off. This process results in an almost “instantaneous” stream of hot water always available for you and your family.

Tankless Hydronic Heater Advantage #1 – Compact size: Most tankless hydronic heaters are designed to installed on a wall and with a slim “footprint” can be placed almost anywhere in the home, not just the basement.

Tankless Hydronic Heater Advantage #2 – Saves on Energy Costs. If you have a large family and seem to need an “endless” flow of hot water, then a tankless heater will save you a bunch of money in water heating bills over the long run.

Tankless Hydronic Heater Advantage #3 – Can be used for in-floor heating. Another use for this type of hydronic heater is to pipe hot water underneath thermal mass flooring (stone, concrete or tile) where it is absorbed and slowly released into the above room as heat.

Tankless Hydronic Heater Advantage #4 – Use as an Outdoor Heater. Tankless hydronic heaters are good options for heating swimming pools, spas, hot tubs, garages, small buildings and even greenhouses.