Are you in the market for a new hot water system and just want your next shower to be steaming hot? Well, there’s a lot to think about before cranking on that hot tap. Electric, gas or solar? Brand? Cost? Warranty? Safety and performance features? Energy efficiency rating? That’s an awful lot of questions, but one of the most difficult to get the answer to be actually one of the most fundamental of all: What size hot water system do I need?
Hot water system size is absolutely critical
In fact, most experienced hot water plumbers agree that so long as the hot water system is all installed and working correctly, a lot of the answer questions we posed above don’t really matter – because you’ll still get hot water out of those hot taps! Get the hot water tank sizes or system capacity wrong, however, and you don’t just run the risk of running out of hot water every day, you might never get a satisfying shower just about ever!
That’s because hot water system sizes and capacities:
- Determine the amount of hot water that can be delivered to your home at any given time
- Determine whether you have enough hot water for the occupants’ daily lifestyles
- Determine whether money & energy will be wasted and whether power bills are manageable.
It’s a double-edged sword that, in a competitive market there are so many hot water tank sizes Brisbane-wide. It’s good, of course, because greater choice is good for the discerning consumer and indicates a highly competitive market and lower prices. But with all that choice for hot water cylinder sizes and system capacities, there’s more scope to choose the wrong system.
Limitations of the hot water tank size calculator
You could try one of the free hot water tank size calculators Australia consumers just like you find online. But hot water experts warn that their accuracy is limited, they’re usually a marketing tool rather than a detailed consumer guide, and they tend to oversimplify the inputs to push a limited number of particular products. And not just that, these online hot water system size calculators fall short in terms of really understanding the nitty-gritty of your situation and giving answers without the direct contribution of real-life, experienced professionals.
So here at Hot Water Systems Brisbane, we’ve put together some of the industry’s smartest and most experienced minds to compile 3 simple questions a consumer can ask themselves to accurately determine the right hot water system size. As you run through the list, write down your answers and then you’ll be armed with the information you need to proceed:
1. How many people are in the household, and how do they use hot water?
With this answer, we’ll know not only much hot water each person uses per day and when, but whether they take showers or baths, how long their showers tend to be, and other vital information. Depending on shower duration alone, hot water heater sizes can differ greatly between one 4-person house versus another.
2. What size is the household, and how many bathrooms are there?
This question relates directly to total and real-time hot water demand because multiple bathrooms can require a system capacity that doesn’t just need more hot water overall but can handle the delivery of that water to multiple hot outlets at the same time (the required flow rate). Depending on the specific requirements of a home, a tankless system with a high capacity and flow rate can be a better choice than a large tank, for instance.
3. What hot water technology type will be installed?
While all the technology types – electric hot water, gas hot water, heat pump hot water, solar hot water and others – will make hot water, the way the system turns the incoming cold water into hot water differs. This can affect the tank size or system capacity, because a gas system for example can get away with a lower system capacity than its electric counterpart for the same hot water production.
One more step to get the right hot water system size
Got your answers ready? Give the friendly team at Hot Water Systems Brisbane a call, and you’ll already be more than halfway there to the hot water system tank size, type, brand and model that will be just perfect for your home, lifestyle & budget. We do it all with fully-guaranteed workmanship for life as well as timely hot water repairs, professional hot water installation, maintenance and so much more. No matter where you are in Brisbane – from Chermside, Hawthorne, Wynnum, Eagle Farm, to Kallangur and beyond, trust that we will be there with our fully-stocked vans and expert hot water plumbing knowledge. So give us a shout today at Hot Water Systems Brisbane.
