This article will provide you with helpful tips and tricks for picking the perfect water heater for your household.
With so many different types of hot water heater options available, how can you decide what best for your needs? There is no one perfect solution, and it's important to educate yourself about each type. Choose the one that is right for your home and lifestyle, and explore its benefits as well as its flaws.
Let's start with a combo system - a combi boiler, which heats water and provides heat to the home. A combi boiler contains a flat plate heat exchanger, which heats water when necessary. As the heat exchanger ramps up the temperature of water, the boiler delivers that water to your shower, sink or other areas of the house. There is no hot water storage tank like you might find in your basement now. Because there isn't any hot water storage tank, it means that the boiler will need to run every time hot water is needed. A combi is small - typically wall hanging and requires very little space. Want to be able to do more activities in your home? Installing a combi in your closet will open up your floor plan for living space!
There are two major categories when it comes to calculating the water heating system for your home. Although these two systems share many similarities, there is an important distinction between a boiler and separate DHW storage tank. The water heated by the boiler will remain at a heated temperature inside the tank until it's needed. In comparison, a combi system will fire off whenever hot water is turned on, unless you have limited the temperature settings. It’s also important to consider that while more traditional options like a burner and separate DHW storage tank take up more space, when fitted with an efficient boiler, they can be equally as effective as combi systems in terms of saving energy without sacrificing function. Both types of heating system can be found in nearly any room throughout the house so you can choose what's best for your family's needs!
When it comes to home heating, you can either choose a combi boiler or a DHW tank. A DHW tank stores hot water ready for use while a combi system draws on and heats water as it is needed. This means that with a DHW tank you’ll enjoy more bathroom plumbing fixtures working at the same time. You can even take two showers simultaneously because the DHW tank is always storing enough hot water! With a combi boiler, on the other hand, there needs to be intermittent periods without any hot water used at all in order to heat up any new hot water.
How many times do you work with hot water every day? Is it just while you're feeding dishes and taking showers? Imagine that; using energy to heat the water, only to cool off again a few hours later. Do you waste energy like this? Actually, no! Hot water stored in a quality hot water tank will maintain its temperature thanks to qualities such as high insulation. That means that the boiler only fires a couple of "recovery cycles" per day - and your DHW is always ready for immediate use.
A common assumption about combi boiler systems is that they're less expensive due to their simplicity and single-unit size. This might not be the case. Modern boiler systems are designed to work with indirect water heaters (another name for a DHW tank) with minimal additional equipment or installation time, which only leads to about a 10-15% increase in price when compared to a comparably-sized combi boiler system.
The bottom line is that it's all up to you. If you want more space, a combi boiler might be the best choice for you. However, if you're looking for maximum efficiency and flow rates, a boiler/tank combo could prove to be your most effective option. You need research to find out which option is best for you, as every family has different needs. The key thing here is to choose an option wisely by taking all your factors into consideration and weighing them against one another.
How to choose the best hot water heater for your family’s needs
