Don’t Take Your Water Heater for Granted!

It works harder for you during the winter

Which of your appliances do you spend the most time taking care of or thinking about during the winter months? If you’re like most, chances are your water heater doesn’t get as much credit (or attention) as it deserves. However, your water heater is a workhorse in your Connecticut home. And, especially when it’s doing its job well, you probably hardly ever think about it. But think about this: You water heater provides all the hot water you and your family use for bathing, laundry, washing the dishes, et cetera. And depending on the size of your household (and how long your showers last), that’s probably a lot of hot water! During the winter months, your family will place even higher demands on your water heater—probably without even noticing.

Why Your Water Heater Works So Hard

Let’s take a moment to review and appreciate how hard your water heater works for your household—especially during the winter. When the temperatures drop and stay down, generating hot water becomes a much harder task for your water heater. Here’s why:

• Your basement is colder during the winter. Chances are your basement isn’t as well insulated or heated as the rest of your home. If you have a water heater with a storage tank in that chilly basement, then the colder environment is actively cooling the water in the tank as it waits to be used. Industry professionals call this transfer of energy “standing heat loss.” And whenever the water in your storage tank drops beyond a certain temperature, your water heater then has to work to reheat it so you can continue to have hot water at your disposal.
• Your water supply is colder during the winter. Your municipal water supply is colder in the winter because the ground and therefore the pipes in the ground are colder. Since the water coming into your house is starting at a lower temperature, your water heater must expend more energy to heat it from its original temperature to the desired temperature.
• Your hot water usage probably increases during the winter. Chances are that the shorter colder days have led to your taking longer and warmer showers. It’s a change lots of people make without noticing. If your bathroom is colder during the winter months, you’re likely to crank up the hot water to compensate. If you and your family are taking longer and/or hotter showers during the winter, your water heater has to work harder to generate the larger volumes of hot water required to make those baths possible.

Now that you know how hard your water heater is working for you this winter, you should want to make sure it’s ready and able to perform without a hitch. So if it’s time for repairs or an upgrade, there’s no time like the present. Let Hocon handle it.

Hocon Knows Water Heaters

When you let Hocon handle your water heater repairs or installation, you no longer have to worry about a loss of hot water. And if you’re switching from an electric water heater to a propane water heater, you could save as much as $240 annually. That’s largely because of how efficient some propane-fueled water heaters are.

Hocon has six strategic locations that serve residents and companies throughout Connecticut and in parts of Massachusetts and New York. Click here to find the branch closest to you.

Contact Hocon today to learn more.