Purchase A Tankless Water Heater And You May Qualify for A Rebate!
Tankless water heaters, such as those manufactured by Noritz, offer many practical advantages over traditional ones. Among the advantages that you and your buyer might appreciate are the energy-efficiency rebates offered to those who “go tankless.”
Unlike traditional water heaters, which constantly heat the water, tankless water heaters operate on demand; that is, only when hot water is needed. For example, with an energy factor of .91 for natural gas (.93 for LP gas), Noritz’s NRC661 condensing tankless model is nearly 10 points more efficient than a comparably sized, conventional tankless unit, and approximately 30 points higher than a standard, tank-type gas-fired water heater. With water heating accounting for between 14 and 25 percent of household energy consumption, this added efficiency matters.
Aside from saving your buyer money on utility bills by installing a tankless water heater, you can also give him/her the opportunity to capitalize on the many utility rebates currently available around the country. For example…
- Sebring Gas System Inc. in Florida offers a $550 rebate for installing a tankless water heater during a new construction project.
- Questar Gas in Utah offers new-home builders a $350 rebate if they install a tankless water heater that has an efficiency factor of 0.90 or higher—which Noritz does.
You can look up what kinds of energy rebates exist in your state at energy.gov. Also, check to see if your state offers any tax credits for new, energy-efficient appliances.
Rebates exist not only for new-construction projects, but also for replacement jobs — if you happen to be doing a remodeling project. So when looking up energy rebates, be sure to note the type of the installation, since that may impact the rebate amount.
For example, homeowner John Park of Huntington Beach, California, received a $200 rebate from the Southern California Gas Company after he replaced his conventional water heater with a NRC661. “Our experience has been nothing but positive,” he comments. “We have the hot water we need, its temperature is reliable, we’re saving energy and we’ve capitalized on the incentives to help make the investment worthwhile.”
For those concerned about the typically higher up-front costs of a tankless water heater versus a tank model, the rebates are an easy way to narrow the difference. With most people doing anything they can to save a few dollars, informing your buyer about these energy rebates might be the deciding factor in their choosing you to install a new tankless water heater.