Water Heater Installation in Maryville, TN
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Water heaters in Blount County work a long season
Your water heater runs from October through April here, seven months of the year, with winter nights averaging 31°F. That is a long stretch of cold water coming in and hot water going out, and a long stretch for a tank to carry the load without a break.
Power is not guaranteed through it. Tennessee households went at least 24 hours without power at a rate of 20 percent in 2024, and the county has recorded 20 winter storms and 107 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A gas water heater with a standing pilot keeps working through an outage like that. The tank installed also has to meet a federal efficiency minimum, and that minimum is not one number. It is set by a formula tied to the tank's rated volume, so the figure that applies depends on the size going in.
- 31°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 7 months
- October through April, the months homes here need heat
- 20%
- of Tennessee households lost power for a day or more in 2024, and a heater with an electric element or electric ignition stops without it
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A heat pump water heater would save about $280 a year to run in Tennessee compared with an electric water heater.
Estimates for a typical Tennessee home, from EIA household energy data and Tennessee fuel prices. Your home will differ.
- How do I know it's time to replace my water heater?
- Look at the age first. Once a tank gets old, a failure can happen without warning. Rust colored water from the hot tap, a tank that's damp or rusting around the base, or water that never gets quite as hot as it used to are all signs the tank is on its way out. If you're calling someone out for a repair more than once a year, replacing it usually makes more sense than patching an old unit, since a leak from a failed tank can mean real water damage in the room around it.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- It depends on what you want out of it, not on your old tank failing. A tankless unit heats water as it flows through rather than storing a tank full of it, so you don't run out partway through back to back showers. It won't heat water without power, so if you're weighing that against a storm knocking out electricity for a stretch, a standard tank with a pilot light stays lit through an outage while an electric ignition system on either type needs power to fire. A contractor can walk through your gas line, venting and hot water use to say whether tankless fits your house.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The biggest change is that hot water becomes limited by flow rate instead of tank size. You can run water as long as you want, but if two showers and the dishwasher all draw at once, the unit may not keep up with all of them at full temperature. The gas line, venting and sometimes the electrical hookup often need upgrading to match what the unit requires, since a tankless heater draws more gas or power at once than a tank does to heat water on demand. A contractor can look at your existing setup and say what needs to change to fit one in.