Water Heater Installation in Conway, NH
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Conway winters put a new water heater to work fast
Winter nights here average 12°F from December through February, and heat runs in this county from September through May, nine months of the year. A water heater in this county is rarely off the clock.
Power is part of the picture too. Nearly a quarter of New Hampshire households went at least 24 hours without power last year, and this county has seen 103 winter storms and 70 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A gas water heater with a standing pilot will keep making hot water through an outage. One with electric ignition will not, and neither will an electric tank. Whichever type goes in, it has to meet the federal minimum efficiency set for its size, since the standard is different for each tank volume.
- 12°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 9 months
- September through May, the months homes here need heat
- 22%
- of New Hampshire 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
- How do I know it's time to replace my water heater?
- The clearest sign is water pooling around the base of the tank. That means it's leaking and it won't stop. Rusty water from the hot tap, a tank making popping or rumbling noises, or water that won't get hot anymore are the other signs worth acting on. Most tank water heaters last a decade or so, so if yours is getting up there in age and starting to act up, replacing it before it fails is worth considering. A unit that fails outright, especially in the middle of winter here, leaves you without hot water until it's fixed.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- It depends on what you want out of it, not just what you have now. A tankless unit heats water as you use it instead of storing a tank of hot water, so you don't run out partway through a shower if someone else in the house needs hot water too. It also takes up much less space than a tank. Against that, a tankless unit needs a strong enough gas line or electrical circuit to heat water on demand, so the install is more involved than swapping one tank for another. A contractor can look at your gas line, venting, and electrical setup and tell you what switching would actually require in your house.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The biggest change is that you stop storing hot water and start heating it on the spot. A tank heater keeps a tank of water hot and waiting for when you need it. A tankless unit fires up when you turn on the hot tap and heats water as it passes through instead. That means the gas line or electrical circuit feeding it usually needs to be sized for that demand, which is more than what a standard tank needs. The venting is different too, since tankless units often vent through a wall rather than up through the roof. Because of that, installing one is not a like-for-like swap, and a contractor will need to look at your gas, electrical, and venting to size the job correctly.