Saskatchewan's Green Directory Helping Saskatchewan choose a better environment

What to look for

Consider the following when selecting a water heater:

Proper Sizing

Make sure that the heater is sized to meet the hot water needs of your household. There is no benefit in oversizing. If you have had an EnerGuide for Houses or ecoENERGY evaluation carried out on your house, there should be an estimate of your energy requirement for hot water in the report. Otherwise, ask an energy consultant / HVAC engineer / building physicist to estimate it.

High Efficiency Models

The best measure is not the heater efficiency, but the Energy Factor (EF), which also takes system losses into account. A condensing unit will have an EF of at least 86. However, small condensing instantaneous water heaters are only just beginning to reach the North American market, so at present we accept units with an Energy Factor of 82% or more - see the list to the right. (When a wider range becomes available in Saskatchewan, we expect to raise the minimum acceptable EF for inclusion.) [Note that some propane models meet this criterion while the equivalent natural gas model fails it.]

Do you want

An instantaneous water heater (more efficient if you choose one of our approved models) or a conventional indirect water heater (generally cheaper, but with an EF typically between 40 and 60)?

Criteria