Brands Of Natural Gas Hot Water Heaters

Natural gas hot water heaters are commonly looked down on for simply being gas driven. Since natural gas prices are at an all time high in the United States, many people will not use them. However, natural gas hot water heaters have some of the best first hour recovery ratings compared to electric and propane, even solar counterparts.

First Hour Recovery Ratings

The natural gas hot water heaters first hour recovery ratings will tell you how many gallons of hot water the natural gas hot water heaters will create in their first hour of operation. The lowest at this time is for Whirlpool, at 71. This means that in the first hour of operation, the average Whirlpool natural gas water heaters will create 71 gallons of hot water. On average, a home will use 20 gallons of water for a shower, 15 gallons for a dishwasher to run and 36 gallons to wash a load of clothes. If you were to complete all these tasks at the same time, someone is going to be short of hot water using a Whirlpool. One down side to natural gas hot water heaters is that they normally will have a smaller storage tank than their electric counterparts, but they are able to heat more water faster, per the FHR or first hour recovery.

Efficiency

The EF or energy factor is a ratio of the total energy used over 24 hours to the energy delivered. The EF for natural gas hot water heaters ranges from .43-.86, with an average of .65. one of the up sides of natural gas hot water heaters is that even though you may use gas that costs more than electricity, it takes more electricity to put out the same amount of heat as almost half the amount of gas. So you would use almost double the electricity to operate at the same temperatures as a natural gas heater.

The major up sides to owning natural gas hot water heaters, is that they will save you more over the life of the water heater, than you would save for the same electric model. One of the down sides to natural gas hot water heaters is that all gas water heaters must be vented outdoors, and can cost additional to have this completed.