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Domestic Water Heaters
Domestic water heaters heat water for home use (drinking, cooking, bathing, flushing toilets). They can be fueled by wood, coal, oil, natural gas, and propane. They can also use electricity and solar energy. Standard gas-fired water heaters have seasonal efficiencies of 50% to 60 %. Electric units are more efficient but electricity is more expensive than gas so operating costs are higher. One of the principal advantages of an oil-fired water heater is its quick recovery (due to higher combustion temperatures)—twice as fast as natural gas and five times as fast as electricity (based on the heat output of typical residential water heaters).
Gas burning and electric hot water tanks are available in tank (storage) types and tankless (demand or spontaneous) types. Tankless domestic water heaters are smaller and don’t keep a reservoir of heated water on hand for anticipated use. They are practical for small apartments or single person households. There are two basic types of oil-fired domestic water heaters: conventional water heaters that heat the water directly in a tank and systems that heat the water in conjunction with another energy use, usually space heating. Combining the functions of space and water heat in one unit can lead to equipment capital cost reductions and to increased operation efficiencies.
Homeowners can improve the operating efficiency of their domestic water heaters by having a system which generates the hot water more efficiently and reduce stack and standby losses. “Standby loss” refers to heat lost from water in a domestic water heater and its distribution system to the surrounding air. Maintaining good hot water pipe and tank insulation is a way of reducing standby losses.
Federal regulations require that water heaters display Energy Guide labels. These labels include the Energy Factor (EF) that measures the overall efficiency of a model, the higher the number, the more efficient it is. The labels also will have a First Hour Rating (FHR) that indicates how many gallons of water that model will produce during a peak usage hour.
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