Water Heater Installation in Ann Arbor, MI
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What a Washtenaw County winter asks of your water heater
Your water heater works through eight months of heating season here, October through May. Winter nights average 19°F, and a tank or a tankless unit runs on that schedule without a break.
Power is part of the picture too. Across Michigan, a third of households lost power for at least 24 hours in 2024, and this county has seen 16 winter storms and 89 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A gas water heater with a standing pilot keeps making hot water through an outage. One with electronic ignition needs power to light, and an electric water heater needs power to run at all. Worth knowing before you pick a replacement.
Whatever you install has to clear the federal minimum efficiency for its type and size. That minimum is not one number. It is set by a formula tied to the tank's rated volume, applied separately across four draw patterns, so two tanks of the same type at different sizes answer to different minimums. A contractor sizing your replacement will know which one applies to yours.
- 19°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 8 months
- October through May, the months homes here need heat
- 34%
- of Michigan 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 $410 a year to run in Michigan compared with an electric water heater.
Estimates for a typical Michigan home, from EIA household energy data and Michigan fuel prices. Your home will differ.
- How do I know it's time to replace my water heater?
- Age is the first thing to check. Most tank water heaters last about a decade, and past that point the tank itself is more likely to fail than any part in it. Look for rust-colored water, a tank that's warm or wet on the outside, or water pooling underneath. A leaking tank won't get patched, it needs a new heater. If yours is still fairly new and just recovering slower than it used to, that can point to a bad heating element or a thermostat instead, and those get replaced on their own.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- It depends on what you want out of it, not on your current heater failing. A tankless unit heats water on demand instead of storing it, so you don't run out partway through back to back showers. It also takes up a fraction of the space a tank does, which matters if you're tight on room in a closet or utility area. What it won't do is deliver more gallons per minute than the unit is rated for, so a house that regularly runs two showers and a dishwasher at once still needs a unit sized for that load. A contractor can look at your gas line and venting too, since tankless units often need larger gas supply and different venting than a tank did.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The biggest change is what's on the wall. A tankless unit mounts flat against it instead of standing on the floor, so the old spot opens up for storage or anything else. Gas venting usually changes too, tankless units often need their own dedicated vent rather than sharing the one a tank used, and gas line sizing sometimes has to increase to feed the higher burner output. Electrical may need a look as well if the model has one. None of this is a straight swap, so a contractor sizes the gas line, vent, and unit together for the house rather than just setting a new heater where the old one stood.