Water Heater Installation in Norfolk, VA
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What a water heater in Norfolk has to handle
Winter nights here average 35°F from December through February, and homes run their heat from November through April. That is six months where the incoming water is colder and the tank has to work harder to bring it up to temperature.
Power is the other issue. In Virginia, 22 percent of households went at least 24 hours without power in 2024, and this area has recorded 50 damaging wind events and 6 winter storms over the past ten years. A gas water heater with a standing pilot will keep making hot water through an outage. One with electric ignition will not light until the power is back. Whatever gets installed, it has to meet the federal minimum efficiency rule for its size, which is set separately for each tank volume rather than as one number across the board.
- 35°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 6 months
- November through April, the months homes here need heat
- 22%
- of Virginia 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 Virginia compared with an electric water heater.
Estimates for a typical Virginia home, from EIA household energy data and Virginia fuel prices. Your home will differ.
- How do I know it's time to replace my water heater?
- The clearest sign is age, along with how it's failing. If yours is old enough that a plumber shakes their head when they see it, a repair is usually just a delay before the next breakdown. Watch for rusty water coming from the hot side only, rust at the fittings or along the bottom seam of the tank, or water pooling underneath it. Popping or rumbling sounds during heating mean sediment has built up on the bottom of the tank, and in an older unit that's usually not worth reversing. If the unit is newer and the problem is something like a bad thermostat or heating element, a contractor can often repair that instead of replacing the whole tank.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- It depends on what you want out of it, not on your current heater being broken. A tankless unit heats water on demand instead of storing it, so you get continuous hot water and don't run out partway through back to back showers. It also uses no energy keeping a tank hot when nobody's drawing water, which a storage tank does all day. The tradeoff is that a tankless unit usually needs a gas line sized for it and often new venting, so the installation itself is a bigger job than swapping one tank for another. A contractor can look at your gas line, venting, and where the unit would go and tell you what changes for your house specifically.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The gas line usually needs to be resized, because a tankless unit draws more gas at once than a tank does to heat water fast on demand. The venting changes too. Tankless units typically vent through stainless steel or PVC rated for the higher temperatures, and the route in and out of the house is often different from where a tank vented. You also lose the several gallons of stored hot water that were sitting ready in a tank, so the very first moment you turn on a hot tap, you're waiting on the unit to fire and heat that water rather than drawing from a reserve. Where the unit mounts changes as well, since a tankless heater hangs on a wall rather than sitting on the floor, and a contractor will figure out the best spot given your gas and vent runs.