If you’ve just replaced your 30-year-old water heater with a brand-new model, the differences in how they work should become apparent pretty quickly. New water heaters are breathtakingly efficient, especially if they’re the heat pump type. This means that you not only get hot water on demand, but you also save on your energy bills.
Old Water Heaters Bring Pollution
You might not think that your ancient water heater dumps pollution into the environment, but it does. As your heater gets older, it collects a lot of sediment. This is especially true if you live in an area with hard water, and about 85% of the United States has hard water. The sediment makes the water heater work harder, so it must use more power, releasing more greenhouse gases into the environment.
Water heaters powered by gas are especially problematic. Older models don’t burn gas efficiently, and they can release unburned gas into the air. Besides natural gas, other gases they can leak include carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide released outdoors is bad enough, but if it’s released inside your home, it can be deadly. This is why you need to make sure your flue and ventilation systems are working and why you should invest in a CO detector. Ask your professional plumber about this.
New Models Are More Efficient and Less Polluting
Your brand-new model water heater is as much as 70% more energy efficient than the old model you just rolled out and sent to the recycling center. This means that it sends fewer greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Another thing that people might not think of is that to build a water heater, you need to use raw materials such as metal and glass. This is also environmentally costly. But a water heater that’s extremely efficient can make up for much of this cost over the years.
About Heat Pump and Tankless Water Heaters
More and more people are looking into heat pumps and tankless water heaters to replace their old, traditional tank heaters. Unlike gas-powered heaters, these appliances don’t work through combustion and therefore don’t leak greenhouse gases.
A heat pump water heater heats water by pulling in heat from the air. A tankless heater works by pulling in cold water and heating it instantly when it’s needed. Because it works like this, it doesn’t have to store water that loses heat just by standing here. This makes a tankless heater more efficient than a traditional tank, but it still can’t beat a heat pump water heater.
Advances in technology have made water heaters amazingly efficient and eco-friendly. To learn more about the new models, talk to your professional plumber. When you need water heater services in Beaumont, TX, contact EcoWorks.