Water Heater Installation in Blackfoot, ID
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Ten months of hard use, and a grid that can fail
Bingham County homes need heat from September through June, ten months of the year. Winter nights averaging 16°F mean the water coming into the tank is cold for most of that stretch, and a water heater built for this county has to recover from that, day after day, for most of the year.
The county has seen 134 winter storms and 109 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and across Idaho 11% of households lost power for 24 hours or more in 2024. A gas water heater with a standing pilot keeps working through an outage. One with electronic ignition does not, and neither does an electric tank, until the power comes back. Whatever size and type goes into your home, federal rules set a minimum efficiency for it, and that number is calculated separately for each tank size and draw pattern, so the right figure depends on the unit you choose.
- 16°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 10 months
- September through June, the months homes here need heat
- 11%
- of Idaho 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 $350 a year to run in Idaho compared with an electric water heater.
Estimates for a typical Idaho home, from EIA household energy data and Idaho fuel prices. Your home will differ.
- How do I know it's time to replace my water heater?
- The clearest sign is water pooling around the base of the tank. Once the tank itself is leaking, that's the tank rusting through from the inside, and there's no patch for that. Rust-colored water from the hot side, a tank that's stopped keeping up with what it used to, or a unit that's just old are all reasons to have it looked at before it fails on its own. A water heater that's still working but getting old is worth replacing on your schedule rather than waiting for it to leak, since a leak means cleanup on top of the replacement itself.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- It depends on what you want out of it, not on any rule that says tankless is better. A tankless unit heats water as it flows through rather than storing it, so you don't run out partway through back-to-back showers, and it doesn't sit there keeping a tank of water hot all day. Against that, a tankless unit usually costs more upfront and going tankless can mean changes to the gas line, the venting, or the electrical, depending on the model and where it goes. A contractor can look at your current setup and tell you what switching would actually involve in your house.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The biggest change is what's connected to it. Tankless units often need a larger gas line to deliver enough fuel, and they vent differently than a tank, so the existing vent pipe usually can't just be reused. Electric models may need a dedicated circuit. None of this means tankless is off the table, it just means the swap is more than pulling one unit and setting in another, and a contractor will need to see the space to say what's involved for your house. If a permit is required for the work, which it is in most cities and counties for this kind of job, an inspector will check that the new venting and gas connections were done correctly.