Water Heater Installation in Troy, MI
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Eight months of heating puts a real load on your water heater
Your water heater works through eight months of heating season here, October through May, on top of hot water for showers and laundry the whole year. Winter nights averaging 19°F mean the incoming water is colder too, so the tank has more work to do to bring it up to temperature.
Michigan sees its share of power interruptions, and Oakland County has recorded 16 winter storms and 164 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A gas water heater with a standing pilot will keep running through an outage. One with electronic ignition needs power to light, and most units come back on by themselves once power returns. New storage water heaters also have to meet a federal efficiency minimum that scales with the tank's size, so the right minimum for your install depends on the size of the tank going in.
- 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. Once a tank water heater gets old, the tank itself becomes more likely to fail than any part in it. Look for rust-colored water, a tank that's damp or weeping around the base, or the water heater cycling on and off more than it used to. If the tank itself is leaking rather than a fitting or valve, that unit needs to be replaced, not repaired. A contractor can tell you from the tank's data plate how old it is and whether it's worth patching or better to plan for a new one.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- It depends on what you want out of it, not on whether tankless is better in some general sense. A tankless unit heats water only when you're running a tap, so you don't pay to keep a tank of water hot all day, and it won't run out partway through back-to-back showers the way a tank can. It also takes different venting and gas or electrical supply than a tank does, so switching is more than a swap of one unit for another. A contractor who's looked at your gas line, venting, and electrical panel can tell you what your house would need to make the switch.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The unit itself changes size and location first. Tankless heaters mount on a wall and take up a fraction of the floor space a tank does, so where it goes in your house is often different from where the old tank sat. Venting changes too, since tankless units need venting rated for their exhaust, which isn't always the same as what a tank used. Gas-fired tankless units also need a large enough gas line to deliver fuel fast, since they're heating water on demand rather than gradually over hours. A contractor can walk through your gas supply, venting, and wall space to say what your installation would need.