The Importance of Water Heater Insulation
Are you looking for ways to lower your water heating costs? Water heaters are typically the second biggest contributor to a home’s energy bills after heating and air conditioning. That means it’s important that you ensure your water heater is energy-efficient and working properly. Depending on the age and type of your water heater as well as where it’s located, insulating it could make a fairly big difference in how much energy it uses. Some water heaters are already sufficiently insulated, but others could definitely benefit from having additional insulation added. In this article, we’ll explain what a difference insulating a water heater can make and also how to tell if your water heater is sufficiently insulated.
Understanding the Issue of Standby Heat Loss
All gas and electric tank water heaters suffer from an issue known as standby heat loss that contributes to them using additional energy. What happens is that heat is slowly lost through the steel tank, leading to the water inside the tank cooling down over time. The rate at which standby heat loss occurs depends on the quality of the water heater and where it’s located. All water heaters already have a layer of insulation in between the tank and the unit’s outside shell, but lower quality units are typically poorly insulated. If you choose a more expensive, higher quality unit, it will likely be much better insulated and not lose heat as quickly. Nonetheless, you’ll still always end up with some heat loss no matter what brand and model your water heater is.
Where your water heater is located within your house can make an even bigger difference in how much standby heat loss it experiences. Homes with a basement most commonly have their water heater in the basement. This can increase the rate of heat loss since many basements tend to be at least a bit colder than the upper floors due to being located underground. If your water heater is in the attic, it’s especially important that it’s properly insulated. If not, it will experience a huge amount of heat loss during the winter months when your attic is often only slightly warmer than the temperature outside. The same is true if your water heater is in the garage, unless your garage is heated.
How Insulating Your Water Heater Can Save Energy
The issue with standby heat loss is that it results in a water heater running more often than necessary and essentially wasting energy. Most water heaters end up running for a minimum of one to two hours each day simply due to standby heat loss. Lower quality water heaters that aren’t that well-insulated inside may have to run for at least three hours a day. In terms of these daily run times, what we’re referring to is a situation where no one is home or you’re not using any hot water throughout the day. A tank water heater will obviously end up running more the more hot water you use throughout the day.
According to the US Department of Energy, adding additional insulation to a water heater that isn’t well insulated will normally reduce the amount of standby heat loss the unit experiences by 25% to 45%. The result is that you can usually reduce the amount of energy your water heater uses by anywhere from 7% to 16% on average. That means you’ll usually fully recoup what you spent on having your water heater insulated within the first year.
The only thing to note is that many experts say that insulating a gas tank water heater has less of an effect than insulating an electric unit. This is because gas units generally lose more heat through the exhaust flue than they do through the side of the tank. Nonetheless, it can still be worth it if your gas water heater is older or located in an unconditioned part of your house that gets quite cold.
You can also reduce your water heating costs a bit by insulating the hot water supply line leading from the water heater. You don’t need to insulate all of your home’s hot water lines since they’re generally located inside walls and ceilings that are themselves insulated and stay quite warm. Nonetheless, it’s a good idea to insulate the exposed section of the supply line from where it connects to the top of the hot water tank to where it goes inside the wall or ceiling. If this section isn’t insulated, the pipe can also get quite cold at times. That means the hot water flowing out of the tank will lose quite a bit of heat at first until the pipe fully heats up. The result is that it takes longer from when you turn on your sink or shower until the water flowing out of it is fully hot. You’ll end up draining more hot water out of the tank than needed and wasting some energy.
How to Know If You Need to Insulate Your Water Heater
One way to quickly tell if you can benefit from having your water heater insulated is to touch the tank to see if it feels hot. If it’s even slightly warm, then you’ll definitely benefit from having it wrapped with foam insulation or an insulating blanket. The other thing you can do is check the information label on the water heater to see if it lists the unit’s R-value. R-values measure resistance to heat transfer and tell you the level of insulation.
The building codes in many places require all hot water storage tanks to be insulated and have an R-value of at least 12.5. Nonetheless, R-12.5 is considered quite low and doesn’t offer nearly the level of insulation needed to decrease standby heat loss by all that much. In fact, most experts recommend insulating your hot water tank if it has an R-value below 24. This is true even if the tank doesn’t feel hot when you touch it.
How Regular Maintenance Also Reduces Your Water Heating Costs
While insulating your hot water storage tank if needed will help you save some money, what makes an even bigger difference is having a plumber service and maintain your water heater at least once every year. Without regular maintenance, you’ll often end up with issues with the electric heating elements in your water heater not working properly or the gas burner not producing as much heat as it should. That means the unit will heat slower than it should, which results in longer heating cycles that increase the amount of energy the unit uses.
Regular maintenance can also help protect the life of your water heater and lessen the chances of it rusting and eventually leaking. Inside the hot water storage tank is a component known as an anode rod that prevents corrosion. How it works is that the anode rod has a reactive metal coating that the minerals in the water corrode and eat away at instead of corroding the tank. Anode rods typically need to be replaced at least every three to five years or sometimes more often if you have hard water. If you don’t have a plumber inspect the rod and replace it as needed, your water heater will likely end up giving out sooner.
The other essential thing you need to do is drain and flush your hot water tank once or twice a year. The purpose of flushing is to remove the mineral deposits or sediment that naturally build up inside the tank. If you don’t get rid of this sediment regularly, your water heater won’t heat as effectively and its energy efficiency will drop. That’s because the sediment tends to absorb quite a bit of heat instead of all of the heat flowing straight out into the water. This can also create hot spots that can slowly weaken the tank over time and again increase the chances of the tank eventually starting to leak or possibly completely rupturing.
If you need any water heater or HVAC service in Roseville or the Detroit metro area, the experts at C & C Heating & Air Conditioning are here to help. We specialize in water heater installation and offer a range of top-quality tank and tankless units. Our team can also help with heating and cooling repair, installation and maintenance. For more information on our water heater services or to schedule an appointment, contact us today.
