Water Heater Installation in Blanding, UT
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Blanding's cold months put a water heater to work
Winter nights here average 23°F from December through February, and homes need heat from October through May, eight months a year. Incoming water runs cold through that stretch, and a water heater has to make up more ground before it reaches the tap.
Power is part of the picture too. Across Utah, 7% of households lost power for 24 hours or more in 2024, and San Juan County has logged 77 winter storms and 16 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A gas water heater with a standing pilot keeps making hot water through an outage. One with electronic ignition comes back on by itself once power returns. Whatever the size, the new unit has to meet the federal minimum efficiency set for its tank volume, since that minimum is figured separately for each size and draw pattern rather than as one number for every heater.
- 23°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 8 months
- October through May, the months homes here need heat
- 7%
- of Utah 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
A heat pump water heater would save about $320 a year to run in Utah compared with an electric water heater.
Estimates for a typical Utah home, from EIA household energy data and Utah fuel prices. Your home will differ.
- How do I know it's time to replace my water heater?
- Check the age on the label near the top of the tank first. Rust colored water from the hot tap, rust on the outside of the tank, or water pooling underneath mean the tank itself is failing rather than just one part, and none of those are worth repairing. Popping or rumbling sounds during heating usually mean sediment has built up on the bottom, which makes the unit work harder to do the same job. If the tank is old and showing any of these signs, replacing it before it fails outright saves you from a cold shower and a wet floor at the same time.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- It depends on what you want out of it, not on your old tank failing. A tankless unit heats water only as you use it, so you get endless hot water instead of running out partway through a shower, and it takes up a fraction of the space a tank does. It won't necessarily lower your bills, and the install is more involved since the gas line, venting and sometimes electrical work often need to change to match the new unit. A contractor can look at your home's gas line and venting and tell you what switching would actually involve.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The biggest change is that hot water gets made on demand instead of stored, so there's no tank sitting full of preheated water waiting for you. The gas line supplying it often needs to be a larger diameter, since a tankless unit draws more gas in the moment it's heating than a tank does. Venting changes too, since most tankless units vent through a wall with special piping rather than up through the roof like a tank. Winters here run cold from October through May, and colder incoming water means the unit has to work harder to hit the same output, so sizing it right for this climate matters.