Water Heater Installation in Wasilla, AK
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A water heater working every month of the year
Winter nights in Wasilla average 12°F from December through February, and homes here need heat all twelve months. Your water heater is part of that load, warming intake water that starts out cold and stays cold most of the year.
A fifth of Alaska households went at least a day without power in 2024. If your new water heater runs on electricity, ask what happens to it when the power drops and comes back. Gas storage water heaters with a standing pilot stay lit through an outage and need no power to keep the pilot burning. The federal minimum efficiency for storage water heaters is not one number. It is set by a formula based on the tank's rated volume, and that formula is applied separately to four different draw patterns, so two tanks of the same type can face different minimums depending on their size.
- 12°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 21%
- of Alaska households lost power for a day or more in 2024, and a heater with an electric element or electric ignition stops without it
NOAA 1991–2020 monthly normals
A gas water heater would save about $1,080 a year to run in Alaska compared with an electric water heater.
Estimates for a typical Alaska home, from EIA household energy data and Alaska fuel prices. Your home will differ.
- How do I know it's time to replace my water heater?
- Age and how it is failing tell you most of what you need to know. A tank water heater that is leaking, rusting at the fittings, or no longer keeping up with hot water is at the point where repair stops making sense. Rust in the hot water itself, or water pooling at the base of the tank, means the tank is failing from the inside and won't be fixed. If the unit is still fairly new and the problem is a part like a heating element or thermostat, that is usually worth repairing instead.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- It depends on what you want out of it, not on any rule that says tankless beats tank. A tankless unit heats water on demand instead of storing it, so it can keep supplying hot water without running out, but it needs enough gas line or electrical capacity to do that, and a contractor has to check whether your home has it. If your current tank is doing the job and just needs replacing, there is nothing wrong with replacing it with another tank. If you are dealing with a tank that runs out of hot water partway through a shower, tankless solves that specific problem.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The unit itself is smaller and mounts on a wall instead of taking up floor space, since there is no tank to hold. It needs enough gas supply or electrical circuit to heat water on demand, which is more than a tank of the same output needs at any one moment, so venting and gas line size often have to be upgraded to match. Winter nights here average 12°F from December through February, and colder incoming water means a tankless unit has to work harder to reach the same output temperature, which a contractor accounts for when sizing the unit for your house. Once it is in, there is no tank to drain or flush the same way, but the unit still needs periodic maintenance to keep the heat exchanger clear of scale.