Professional plumbers know that there is always something better and more efficient out there, especially when it comes to the appliances in your home. In today’s market there is a bigger, better, and shinier model of something coming out to capture your attention and get you to spend more money. Sometimes, it is a good thing to have the latest innovations or at the very least upgrade from some of the older and less efficient solutions and appliances that are still in use in your home. As always it is a good idea first to consult with a plumber, who is the expert, before making any changes that involve your household plumbing. Given our penchant for wanting something new and exciting, it is definitely a testament to sustainability that the water heater has remained virtually unchanged for decades. There are newer models out there but until very recently the changes remained small. Plumbers are now installing tankless water heaters that are far and beyond the conventional unit you would find in most people’s basements. The technology has changed, giving people a newer and more efficient way to heat their water while having a virtually unlimited supply of hot water. This alone may be a reason to consider switching to a tankless water heater. A conventional water heater, well serviced and maintained by a local plumber, operates by storing between forty and eighty gallons of water in the tank. This water is preheated to a set temperature, and the tank maintains the water at that temperature 24 hours a day, seven days per week. By comparison a tankless water heater does not store the water or waste energy in maintaining the temperature; instead it heats the water using a series of coils when the hot water is demanded. Is this the best system for your home? The best way to answer that question is to consult with a local plumbing expert who will give you a detailed analysis based on your household’s individual needs. There are some inherent limitations to a conventional water heater, which could be a reason to have your plumber install a new tankless system. Some of these limitations are – Higher energy bills are the norm for a conventional water heating system which functions by keeping the water hot at all times. Only about 60% of the energy spent on this kind of water heater goes into actually heating the water, the rest is for storage. Hot water runs out due to the limited amount of water available. Because the conventionally hot water heater depends on the tank to store the preheated water, you have a limited amount of hot water available to you for use. Once this runs out, as many people have found out when being the last person to take a shower, the water that flows through the pipes is cold. The hot water heater then requires time to reheat the set amount of water before you can have access to hot water again. They can be a waste of space. The conventional water heater sits like a giant metal statue, taking up as much space as possible in your basement. This space could be more efficiently used if you were to have your plumber update you to a new tankless water heating system.