Water Heater Installation in Fort Collins, CO
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A water heater here works ten months a year
Fort Collins needs heat from September through June, and that means hot water demand on top of it for most of the year. Winter nights average 15°F, so a new water heater has to recover fast when incoming water is cold and the house is asking more of it.
Power is part of the picture too. About 13% of Colorado households went at least a day without power in 2024, and Larimer County has logged 97 winter storms and 102 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A gas water heater with a standing pilot keeps making hot water through an outage. One with electronic ignition, or an electric tank, won't light or heat until the power is back.
Size matters more than a lot of people expect. The federal efficiency minimum for a storage water heater is not one number. It is set by the tank's rated volume, and it is figured differently for different draw patterns, so two tanks of different sizes are held to different standards even if they are the same type.
- 15°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 10 months
- September through June, the months homes here need heat
- 13%
- of Colorado households lost power for a day or more in 2024, and a heater with an electric element or electric ignition stops without it
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A heat pump water heater would save about $370 a year to run in Colorado compared with an electric water heater.
Estimates for a typical Colorado home, from EIA household energy data and Colorado fuel prices. Your home will differ.
- How do I know it's time to replace my water heater?
- Check the age on the label first, since most tank water heaters wear out after a certain number of years in service. If it's leaking from the tank itself, not a fitting, that's the tank lining failing, and it won't stop. Rusty water from the hot side only, popping or rumbling sounds, or hot water that runs out faster than it used to are all signs the tank is on its way out. A water heater that's still fairly new and just not keeping up might only need a repair, so it's worth having someone look before you replace it.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- It depends on what you want out of it, not just what you have now. A tankless unit heats water as it's used instead of holding a tank of it hot all day, so you get endless hot water as long as the flow rate matches what the unit can handle. It also takes up a fraction of the space a tank does, which matters if yours sits somewhere cramped. What it won't do is fix low water pressure or old, undersized pipes, since those are separate problems. A contractor can look at your gas line, venting, and how many fixtures run at once to tell you whether a tankless unit will actually keep up in your house.
- 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. Gas-fired tankless units need a larger gas line than a tank model in a lot of cases, since they draw more fuel to heat water on demand, and they need their own venting run to the outside. There's no tank standing by, so hot water only comes when a fixture calls for it, and very short bursts of hot water use, like a quick handwashing, may not always trigger it. Because the plumbing, gas, and venting all change, this is an installation job for a licensed contractor, not a straight swap.