Water
Heating
Water for domestic use can be heated either by using
a traditional ''tank-type" storage heater or
by a tankless "instant" heater.
Storage heaters work by maintaining several
gallons of water at a high temperature so that when
required there is a generous supply of hot water available
at all times. While these units are still popular,
there is a shift toward the tankless heaters which
operate on-demand to heat only the water being used
at that particular time.
Storage heaters offer the benefit that in the event
of a power outage, there is a back up supply of hot
water that will likely stay warm for some time, however
from an electrical efficiency standpoint these units
are inefficient, as they constantly draw power to
heat the large volume of water contained therein.
Tankless heaters offer no such redundancy
of hot water supply, however they use a lot less power
and as long as there's water coming into the house
and electricity, the supply of hot water is instant
and literally endless.
