Alea Living

Navien tankless water heaters have a couple of great features that make it an outstanding choice for many homeowners.  It appears they have solved several of the problems most tankless water heaters are saddled with. Tankless water heaters a becoming quite popular, largely to due the perception that tankless water heaters are green and save energy.  However, since tankless heaters require longer wait times to get hot water to the fixture, they can end up wasting water.  Another problem with them is obtaining a small stream of warm water is very difficult. Tankless units require a minimum flow rate to turn on, typically requiring ½ gallons per minute to ¾ gallons per minute.  To get warm water you end up needing to mix cold water with the hot water and thus you can end up with a minimum flow of over a gallon a minu work at home te. Navien has tankless water heaters with a built-in buffer tank and circulating pump. According to the Navien literature this feature allows you to use as little as .1 to .2 gallons per minute and the water heater will keep putting out hot water.  With these models your hot water will reach your fixture more quickly since there is water already hot waiting to be sent to the fixture as soon as you turn on the hot water faucet. This system also eliminates what is known as the cold water sandwich which is a common problem with tankless water heaters.  These tankless heaters can circulate the water internally between the heat exchanger and the buffer tank, or you can even connect them to a traditional dedicated return line and the internal pump will circulate hot water so you have instant hot water at your fixtures.