There is a questions that is often asked about home improvement, ‘am I able to use a gas water heater to warm my house?’ While it may not seem like a question that you would ask someone, it is a question that gets asked quite a bit. But like any plan to heat your house, business or shop, there are many different details that need to be taken into consideration. In fact, there are actually four main points that you need to figure out before you decide whether your gas water heater is the best option to warm your house. A great resource for more information can be found here at http://tanklesswaterheaters.review/gas/.
Those four points are:
- Flow rates and heat load
- Safety and health
- Cost and efficiency
- Warranty
While there are more details that you will need to take into consideration when it comes to using your water heater to warm your house, these are the four main ones and the most important as well. So after you go through these points and they have not eliminated using your water heater as your house’s heat source, then you can go on and get a quote from a design engineer. Lets take a look at these four main points in detail.
Flow Rates and Heat Load
This is one of the most important things you have to figure out, as this will let you know if your plan to use your water heater to warm your house will work or not. So essentially, this is going to tell you if your water heater is capable of getting the job done.
The first step is to figure out what the heat load and flow rates on your current heating system is. It is always best to have an expert come in and assess your current system for you.
Safety and Health
Once you know whether or not you can heat your home with your current water heater system, the next question is, ‘should you?’
To answer this question, you need to keep in mind that water heaters were designed to heat water, as well as only operate for short periods of time throughout the day. If you are able to keep your heat demands within your water heater system’s capabilities, then using it to heat your house may be a good choice.
Cost and Efficiency
To calculate the efficiency and cost that it will require to use your water heater to heat your house, you really can’t. There are simply too many different factors in play. While you can get a good estimate of what it will cost and how effective it will be, it really is going to be more of a personal choice and how you feel about it.
Warranty
A lot of times when you use a water heater to heat your house, it will void the warranty of the water heater. Be sure to double check whether or not this is going to be the case if you decide to use your water heater to heat your home.