Water Heater Installation in Burlington, NC
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What a new water heater needs to handle here in Burlington
Winter nights average 31°F from December through February, and your water heater has to bring in groundwater that cold and get it up to temperature every time someone runs a shower or starts the dishwasher. That work does not let up. Burlington homes need heat running seven months a year, October through April, and your water heater is on the same clock, working harder in the cold months than the warm ones.
Power is worth planning around too. A quarter of North Carolina households lost power for 24 hours or more at some point in 2024, and Alamance County has seen 8 winter storms and 105 damaging wind events over the past ten years. If you go with a tank, most gas models with a standing pilot will keep making hot water without power at all, and electric models will pick back up on their own once power returns. Whatever size and type you choose, the federal minimum efficiency it has to meet is set by a formula based on that unit's rated volume, so a larger tank and a smaller one of the same type are not held to the same number.
- 31°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 7 months
- October through April, the months homes here need heat
- 25%
- of North Carolina 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 $300 a year to run in North Carolina compared with an electric water heater.
Estimates for a typical North Carolina home, from EIA household energy data and North Carolina fuel prices. Your home will differ.
- How do I know it's time to replace my water heater?
- The clearest sign is water around the base of the tank. Once a tank starts leaking, it will not seal back up and it needs to be replaced, not patched. Rusty or metallic-smelling hot water is another sign, especially if it comes from the tank itself rather than just the first burst from the pipes. Age matters too. Most tank water heaters last close to a decade, and past that point a contractor should look at it even if it seems fine, since the tank can fail without warning as it nears the end of its life. If yours is old and you lose power for a stretch, a storage tank will at least keep water hot for a while, which is worth knowing given how often storms move through this area.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- It depends on what you want out of your hot water, not on your current unit being old or failing. A tankless heater does not store hot water, it heats it as it passes through, so you get a steady supply as long as it's running and never run out partway through a shower. What it will not do is deliver unlimited hot water to two showers and a washing machine running at once, since it can only heat so much water per minute. If your household regularly hits that kind of demand, a contractor can size a unit for it or tell you a tank still makes more sense for your home.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The biggest change is that there's no tank taking up floor or wall space, since the unit mounts and heats water on demand instead of storing it. That also means no standby heat loss between uses, because there's no reservoir of hot water sitting around waiting to be used. Venting and gas line requirements are often different from what a storage tank needed, so the installation itself involves more than swapping one unit for another. A contractor can walk through what your home's existing gas line, venting and water lines will need to support the switch.