Water Heating Equipment

Photographs of issues with water heaters found during home inspections.

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To improve the energy efficiency of water heaters, you want to insulate the hot water line. Insulating near the hot water heater has become fairly standard practice. The problem here is the pipe insulation was not put on well. Do you see the red line attached to the copper pipe. That red line is the PEX tubing being used for the hot water in the home ( red PEX for hot and blue PEX for cold). When the insulation is on like this, the insulation does not function as intended.

This is a gas water heater (you can tell by the vent in the middle of the top of the unit). Insulating a water heater helps improve the energy efficiency of the unit. This had become common practice for electric heaters, but there were concerns that the insulation near the burner compartment door was a safety issue (fires). Thinking has changed, and as long as you do not place the insulation to close to an open burner compartment door, you can be safe. However, another issue arises with insulating these units that not everyone considers: insulation effecting the vent. You want to keep insulation away from the vent for the same reason you would not want it near an open burner compartment, but there is another reason which effects the efficiency of the unit. The vent needs a free air flow to help move combustion gases out of the house, and when studied, it was found that insulation can hamper this air flow, so it is better not to have the insulation on the top of the water heater.

Often, the connections on the water heater can be made from galvanized steel, but the pipe bringing water to the unit has a brass or copper fitting. This leads to the metal in the two ends of the connection to react, which can cause a leak. Rust signs and build-up are indicators that a leak may be happening.

Have you found a gas water heater in a closet? This can be alright, but there are a few concerns, and these issues have to do with air supply. Any equipment that has a gas burning furnace needs air to continue burning. I have seen situations where a gas water heater is in a closet with the ceiling removed to open the space to the attic. This works, but there are problems with this method. My main concern is energy efficiency. Every wall in the water heater closet becomes an exterior wall. Exterior wall? Maybe I should be a bit more technical to say that the walls of the closet become part of the thermal envelope. That means each wall of the closet should be insulated, and the door to the closet should be an exterior door. A solution to help reduce this thermal break is to have a true closet, but then supply air for combustion. This is accomplished by the vents in the pictures above. You need two vents. One will be at the base of the water heater near the burner compartment. The next will be near where the upper vent for the flue gas is located. The door to this closet should continue to be an exterior door.