Having a warm shower or bath or even being able to wash dishes or cook is something most people take for granted. Because you never see where it comes from, many may not know that a faucet doesn’t just produce warm liquid by itself.
Having a warm shower or bath or even being able to wash dishes or cook is something most people take for granted. Because you never see where it comes from,
many may not know that a faucet doesn’t just produce warm liquid on its own, but in reality there is a very important machine that does just that.
Water heaters are one of the most important pieces of equipment in a home. Think about it - how long would you last without warm water to bathe, wash dishes or even clean your hands?
In your everyday life, you probably don’t give much thought to how you get hot liquid out of your taps, especially if you don’t own your home and aren’t responsible for its maintenance. Yet while you simply turn a knob on your faucet and don’t think twice about why it works just as you rely on it to work, there is much more to the process and it can vary greatly by home.
In most homes, water heaters do not supply a continuous stream that flows at a consistent temperature. Instead, it heats individual batches whose temperature may vary anywhere from slightly to significantly depending on factors such as how much is used and how long it is used for.
Like the various types of machines they fuel, energy sources used in water heaters vary as well. In most countries, fossil fuels such as oil, natural or petroleum gasses are used. Alternative sources such as solar energy, geothermal energies and various types of heat pumps are also common.
In some countries, especially those where cold temperatures are prevalent for much of the year, district heating is common. With this method, the energy needed to supply all of the surrounding homes in a certain area is provided by waste heat from industrial uses, including power plants, incinerators and other sources. The actual heating is done at a centralized location and individual exchanges within the home supply the metered amount for that person or family.
For those who need their own units inside their own homes, there are several different appliances and methods available. In choosing which one may be best for a specific home, factors including economics, the size and location of the home, the number of people living there and their typical needs, among others, all play a role.
In a gravity system, which is most common in the United Kingdom, a boiler heats a primary batch of liquid inside a copper vessel that in turn warms a secondary batch for use inside the home. The supply for such a method is often a storage unit that maintains a cold batch that is then warmed for use.
In situations where a more consistent flow is needed, the liquid is is heated in a pressurized tank that often includes an electrical resistance heater. It is then stored in this tank at the desired temperature and pressure and released into the pipes as needed over time.
Tankless hot water heaters, which are more recent developments in technology, do not have a dedicated unit for storing heated liquid and instead warm it as needed, which can result in a smaller available supply.
