Best Ways to Heat Hot Water for your Home

Best Ways to Heat Hot Water for your Home Were talking about hot water this week, no –I’m not in trouble again, just discussing the best ways to heat water for your home. This focus is on domestic hot water (DHW). Its water that you use for your kitchen, your bathing, your laundrey, not for your irrigating your yard. The average home uses about 68 gallons of hot water a day, with huge variations based on the number and age of the occupants and building size. I took a step back and said, how do we heat water? I counted five basic ways that people have been heating water. First is solar thermal where the sun is used to heat the water. Next is a gas hot water heater and they have new condensing units that have minimal emissions and are more efficient. We have electric hot water heaters that are super simple, and flash hot water heaters using gas or electricity that are basically “tankless” and we have heatpump water heaters. On this week’s Energy Show we will review each of these technologies so you can determine what is best for you in your home.