Sanders Plumbing Company's Resources
Welcome to the Sanders Plumbing Company podcast, your go-to source for practical plumbing tips, home maintenance advice, and real-world solutions for homeowners and businesses in Knoxville, TN. From leaky faucets and clogged drains to water heaters, sewer lines, remodels, and emergency plumbing issues, Sanders Plumbing Company is here to help you understand what is happening behind the walls and under the floors of your property.
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Sanders Plumbing Company's Resources
Why More Homeowners Are Choosing Tankless Water Heaters in Knoxville TN
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Discover why more homeowners are upgrading to a tankless water heater in Knoxville TN for endless hot water, lower energy bills, and long-term savings. This guide explains how tankless systems work, the impact of East Tennessee’s hard water conditions, installation requirements, maintenance tips, and what Knoxville families can expect in performance and efficiency. Learn the real costs, energy savings, and benefits of professional tankless water heater installation so you can make the best choice for your home and budget.
90%. That is the number of homeowners who make one of the most expensive infrastructure decisions for their house while they're dripping wet, shivering cold, and just entirely desperate.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You step into the shower expecting that peaceful, uninterrupted 10 minutes of, you know, pure comfort to just wash the day away. And instead, the water turns to absolute ice.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell Right. Which is the worst feeling.
SPEAKER_00It is. And suddenly you aren't thinking about comfort anymore. You are in full panic mode. You're just staring at a massive prudtle forming around this rusted metal cylinder in your basement.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell And in that exact moment, you have completely lost all your negotiating power. I mean, you aren't shopping around or like weighing the pros and cons of different heating technologies.
SPEAKER_00No, definitely not. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You are literally just telling the very first plumber who answers the phone to please just make the water warm again, which is, you know, how you end up locked into this rushed, poorly informed appliance decision that you just have to live with for the next decade.
SPEAKER_00Aaron Ross Powell Exactly. And our goal for you today is to pull you completely out of that reactive state. We are looking at a really fascinating document today, the Knoxville Homeowner's Guide to Tankless Water Heaters. And we're going to explore the hidden mechanics, the actual physics of heating water, and the environmental factors of these systems.
SPEAKER_01The idea is really to equip you with the knowledge to make this choice on your own terms, right? Not the plumbers' terms.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So you're ready when the time comes.
SPEAKER_01Okay, let's unpack this because reading through this guide, I very quickly realized this isn't just a basic conversation about plumbing. Oh not at all. This is a deep dive into thermodynamics, household economics, and even upcoming federal regulations that are going to fundamentally change how homes are built. But to understand why there is this sudden rush to tear out traditional water tanks and replace them with tankless units, we really have to look at the baseline problem of the traditional tank itself.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and the baseline problem is that traditional water heating is just a massive, incredibly inefficient energy drag.
SPEAKER_01It's huge, right?
SPEAKER_00It is. The source actually points out that water heating consumes roughly 18% of a home's total energy use.
SPEAKER_01Wait, 18%?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, almost a fifth. Think about your monthly utility bill. Nearly a fifth of that cost goes strictly toward just making water hot.
SPEAKER_01Which is a huge slice of the pie. And the reason it consumes so much energy, um, it really comes down to the mechanism of how a traditional tank actually operates.
SPEAKER_00Right. The actual physical process.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Like having a standard 50-gallon tank in your basement is essentially like keeping a giant pot of water constantly boiling on your kitchen stove 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just in case you might want to make a cup of tea on a random Tuesday afternoon.
SPEAKER_00That is the perfect way to visualize it. It's a concept called standby heat loss.
SPEAKER_01Standby heat loss.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Because even with modern insulation, that large metal tank constantly radiates heat out into the cooler air of your basement. It just bleeds heat.
SPEAKER_01And then what happens?
SPEAKER_00Well, as the water temperature drops, the internal thermostat clicks on, it fires up the gas burner or the electrical elements, reheats those 50 gallons back to your set temperature, and then shuts off. And it repeats this cycle endlessly.
SPEAKER_01Wow. So you are paying to reheat the same water while you are sleeping, while you are at the office and like while you're away on a two-week vacation.
SPEAKER_00Precisely. You're paying for hot water nobody is using. But contrast that with a tankless system. A tankless unit just sits there, bolted to your wall, completely dormant. It uses absolutely zero energy when it's off.
SPEAKER_01So it's basically asleep.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Yeah. It only wakes up the exact second you turn on the hot water faucet. Then it flash heats the water on demand as it flows through the pipes. So instead of that giant boiling pot you mentioned, it's much closer to like an electric rapid kettle.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that makes sense. And that operational difference has to completely change the efficiency math, right?
SPEAKER_00Oh, completely. The guide measures this using an energy factor rating. A standard traditional tank hovers around a rather dismal rating of 0.57 to 0.61, meaning a massive portion of the energy you pay for is just lost as waste heat. But tankless systems operate at ratings between 0.82 and 0.94.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that's a massive jump.
SPEAKER_00It is. You are converting nearly all of the energy directly into heating the water you actually use. No waste.
SPEAKER_01And the guide does a really great job breaking down what that efficiency looks like in real life. I mean, whether you live alone and take like one quick shower a day or you have a busy family of five running back-to-back loads of laundry and dishwasher cycles, the math still lands in your favor.
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01You are looking at energy reductions ranging from 8% on the heavy usage N all the way up to 34% for lighter usage.
SPEAKER_00What's fascinating here is how the long-term economics actually play out when you map those percentages to real dollars. The guide notes that these efficiency gains translate to roughly $150 to $200 of annual savings.
SPEAKER_01Okay, wait, let me stop you there because I have a major question about the specific numbers.
SPEAKER_00Sure. Lay it on me.
SPEAKER_01The guide states that replacing a traditional tank might cost between, say, $1,700 and $3,200, but a tankless system requires an initial investment of $3,000 to potentially $6,500.
SPEAKER_00Right. It's a premium product.
SPEAKER_01A huge premium. I mean, if I have to drop thousands of extra dollars right now, does saving $150 a year, which is what, like $12 a month?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Does that really justify the massive upfront hype?
SPEAKER_00Aaron Powell Well, if you only look at the first few years, no. The math absolutely does not make sense. You'd be waiting decades just to pay off the premium of the machine itself. But you are missing the most critical variable in the equation here. Which is the lifespan metric.
SPEAKER_01Ah. Because the standard tanks don't last very long.
SPEAKER_00They really don't. Yeah. Think about it. A traditional tank holds 50 gallons of heavy water. Constantly heating and cooling that water causes the steel tank to expand and contract day after day after day.
SPEAKER_01Oh, sure. Metal expands when it gets hot.
SPEAKER_00Right. And over time, that thermal stress creates microscopic fatigue in the metal and the welds. Combine that with the naturally corrosive properties of water. And a standard tank is really only built to survive about eight to twelve years before it fails.
SPEAKER_01And then you get the basement puddle.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But a tankless system doesn't store water. It doesn't endure that constant heavy expansion and contraction. Its expected lifespan is actually 15 to 20 years.
SPEAKER_01Ah, okay. I see where this is going. So in a single 20-year window, I am only buying and paying the labor to install one tankless system. Right. But if I stick with the old technology, I am buying one standard tank today. And I am basically guaranteed to have to buy and install a second complete tank system a decade from now.
SPEAKER_00Which completely flips the economic reality.
SPEAKER_01It totally does.
SPEAKER_00The break-even point actually hits around year 11 or 14. So over a 20-year period, when you factor in the avoided replacement costs and the monthly utility savings, a gas tankless system will save a homeowner anywhere from $3,700 to over $10,000.
SPEAKER_01That is a staggering amount of money over 20 years.
SPEAKER_00It is. Plus, by eliminating that constant standby heat loss, you are drastically lowering your home's overall carbon footprint.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so the core problem is solved. On a spreadsheet, the tankless system is obviously the clear winner.
SPEAKER_00For sure.
SPEAKER_01But and the source material makes this incredibly clear. Water heaters do not operate in a vacuum. They have to fight the local environment. Which brings us to the specific geographical challenges highlighted for homes in East Tennessee.
SPEAKER_00Right, specifically the Knoxville area.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Generating instant heat on demand means the machine has to fight whatever the baseline temperature of your local groundwater is.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. The machine doesn't care how warm it is outside, it cares how cold the water is underground.
SPEAKER_01Right. And in Knoxville, the winter groundwater temperatures average around 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, a standard comfortable shower is set to about 120 degrees. That means this machine has to instantly create a 65 degree temperature rise in like the few seconds it takes the water to travel through the internal pipes.
SPEAKER_00It is a massive thermal lift. I mean, doing that instantly is hard.
SPEAKER_01I was actually trying to wrap my head around how hard the machine has to work to achieve that. And I thought of it like this. Imagine you're driving a car, right? It's like asking your car to merge onto a highway from a dead stop going uphill in the middle of winter.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's a good comparison.
SPEAKER_01Versus, you know, already cruising at speed on a flat road in the summer. The engine has to work so much harder in the first scenario.
SPEAKER_00Which is exactly why proper sizing of these units is the single most critical step of the entire installation. The guide points out that a homeowner might install an undersized unit in July, and it performs beautifully because the thermal lift is so small.
SPEAKER_01Because the summer groundwater is warmer.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. But then January rolls around, the groundwater drops to 55 degrees, and suddenly that exact same unit completely fails to provide hot water.
SPEAKER_01Oh man.
SPEAKER_00It simply does not have the burner capacity to bridge that 65 degree gap at the speed the water is flowing.
SPEAKER_01And speaking of water flowing, that introduces another huge variable. The guide mentions that these tankless units require a water pressure window between 20 and 80 psi just to activate. What does that actually mean for the plumbing inside a house?
SPEAKER_00Well, normal city water pressure is usually around 50 to 60 psi pounds per square inch. That gives you a nice strong stinging shower head.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00But if you live in a more rural area or um you're on an older well system, your home might only naturally pull 30 psi. Tankless systems rely on internal flow sensors. They need a strong, consistent flow of water pushing against those sensors to know when to fire the main burners.
SPEAKER_01Wait, so if the pressure drops too low while you were showering?
SPEAKER_00The sensor stops registering the flow. The internal computer assumes you just turn the tap off so it instantly cuts the heat to prevent the remaining water inside the unit from boiling and destroying the pipes.
SPEAKER_01So the machine shuts down, but the water tap is still open.
SPEAKER_00Yep. The cold water just keeps flowing.
SPEAKER_01That perfectly explains the agonizing temperature swings people complain about.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, the dreaded cold water sandwich.
SPEAKER_01You are standing in the shower, it's perfectly hot, then the pressure dips slightly, the burners cut out, and suddenly you are just blasted with freezing water.
SPEAKER_00And then the pressure builds back up, the sensor clicks, the burners reignite, and you get blasted with hot water again. It is a terrible experience, entirely caused by not verifying the home's baseline water pressure before installation.
SPEAKER_01But according to the guide, winter temperatures and water pressure aren't even the biggest threats in East Tennessee.
SPEAKER_00No, they're not.
SPEAKER_01The real enemy of the tankless water heater in the Knoxville area is the water itself, specifically the hard water.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the region has heavily mineralized water. The guide actually notes it exceeds 120 milligrams per liter of calcium carbonate, which is a lot.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I know hard water leaves like chalky spots on glass shower doors, but why is it so destructive to these specific machines? A standard water tank deals with the same hard water without immediately breaking down.
SPEAKER_00Right. It comes down to a chemical principle called inverse solubility.
SPEAKER_01Inverse solubility.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So with most substances, heat increases solubility. If you stir sugar into a cup of cold water, it struggles to dissolve. Sure. But if you stir it into hot coffee, it dissolves instantly. But calcium carbonate behaves in the exact opposite way.
SPEAKER_01Wait, so the hotter the water gets, the less it wants to dissolve?
SPEAKER_00Precisely. Heating the water drives off dissolved carbon dioxide, which basically lowers the water's natural acidity. And when that acidity drops, the calcium can no longer stay dissolved. It literally precipitates out of the liquid and solidifies. Oh wow. And because a tankless system flash heats water so aggressively, it causes a massive amount of calcium to rapidly drop out and bake directly onto the hottest surface it can find, which is the copper heat exchanger inside the unit.
SPEAKER_01Oh gross. So it just forms a thick, chalky scale right inside the machine.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. And because that scale acts as an insulating barrier between the fire and the water, the machine suddenly has to burn even more gas just to push the heat through all that calcium buildup.
SPEAKER_01Which obviously overworks the entire system.
SPEAKER_00Right. The guide warns that without strict annual maintenance, this scale buildup can restrict your water flow by 30 to 40 percent in just three to five years.
SPEAKER_01Which is a huge shift in the maintenance reality for a homeowner. I mean, with a traditional tank, you could largely ignore it in the basement until it rusted out a decade later.
SPEAKER_00Pretty much. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But a tankless system is a high performance machine. You really have to treat it like a car engine. Changing the oil in your car isn't optional if you want the engine to survive. And annual flushing of a tankless unit with a descaling solution is totally non-negotiable.
SPEAKER_00Right. It forces you to be actively involved. Now you could do the flushing yourself. The guide mentions DIY kits with a pump and some descaling vinegar cost about $30 to $50.
SPEAKER_01Or you can hire a professional, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, if you hire a pro to run the flush, it runs about $150 to $300. But the crucial takeaway is that if you skip this annual descaling, you don't just lose water pressure. Oh you will void the manufacturer's warranty entirely. And the machine will quite literally choke on its own scale and destroy itself.
SPEAKER_01Yikes. Okay, well, because that shocky scale forces the machine to burn so much more gas just to function, it brings us directly to the structural demands of the house. Here's where it gets really interesting.
SPEAKER_00Oh, definitely.
SPEAKER_01Because to generate that kind of massive instant fire to overcome the cold winter groundwater we talked about, the unit requires an enormous draw of instant energy.
SPEAKER_00It completely changes the installation landscape. You are not just swapping a metal box, you are often upgrading the fundamental infrastructure of the home.
SPEAKER_01Okay, let's look at the gas models first. A traditional gas tank heater uses roughly 30,000 to 40,000 BTUs of energy to slowly heat its large volume of water.
SPEAKER_00What exactly is a BTU in this context?
SPEAKER_01A BTU or British thermal unit is just a measurement of heat energy. To visualize it, um, one standard burner on your gas kitchen stove running on high puts out about 10,000 BTUs.
SPEAKER_00So a traditional water heater is essentially using the equivalent of three or four stove burners, gently heating that giant pot in the basement.
SPEAKER_01Right. Okay. But a tankless gas unit demands 150,000 to 200,000 BTUs to flash heat the water instantly.
SPEAKER_00Which is the equivalent of turning on 20 stove burners all at the exact same instant, confined inside a little metal box the size of a suitcase.
SPEAKER_01That is a staggering leap in energy consumption. Wait, if the new machine physically mounts to the wall and still uses natural gas, why can't I just hook it up to the exact same gas line that fed the old tank?
SPEAKER_00Because of the sheer volume of gas required to feed 20 burners versus three burners, the existing gas pipe feeding a standard tank is usually only a half inch in diameter. It physically cannot carry enough gas vapor fast enough.
SPEAKER_01Because the pipe is too narrow.
SPEAKER_00Right. It is like trying to suck a thick, heavy milkshake through a tiny plastic coffee stirrer.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that makes total sense.
SPEAKER_00The flow is completely choked. So to feed 200,000 BTUs, you almost always have to upsize the existing gas line to a three-quarter inch pipe, essentially a massive boba straw, all the way from the meter outside the house.
SPEAKER_01And the guide explains that replacing and upsizing the home's gas line can cost anywhere from $500 to $1,500, and that's before you have even purchased the water heater itself.
SPEAKER_00Yep. And the electrical models present an even steeper infrastructure hurdle.
SPEAKER_01Wait, really?
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. A whole home electric tankless unit doesn't use gas. It forces water over superheated internal coils. To achieve that flash heat, these units draw between 120 to 160 amps of electricity.
SPEAKER_01Wait, just for the water heater? 160 amps. Most standard residential homes only have a 200 amp electrical panel for the entire house.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Panel has to power the air conditioning, the refrigerator, the oven, all the lights.
SPEAKER_00Which means pulling 160 amps just to take a shower would instantly trip the main breaker for the entire house.
SPEAKER_01So what do you do?
SPEAKER_00Well, to install an electric tankless system, you almost always have to pay an electrician to perform a total heavy up service upgrade, installing a secondary breaker panel just to support the water heater.
SPEAKER_01You are literally rewiring the infrastructure of your home, which is why this is absolutely not a weekend project for a DIY enthusiast. The guide mentions that Tennessee building codes legally require permits for this scope of work. You have to submit um gas pipe isometric drawings to the city.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, an isometric drawing is essentially a 3D blueprint of your entire gas plumbing system.
SPEAKER_01What are they looking for on those?
SPEAKER_00It shows the city inspectors the exact pipe lengths, the number of elbow joints, and the pipe diameters. They use it to calculate the pressure drop, ensuring that when your tankless heater kicks on at full blast, it doesn't accidentally starve your home's furnace of gas in the middle of winter.
SPEAKER_01Wow, it really is a massive undertaking. And the manufacturers are incredibly strict about who's actually doing the physical work too.
SPEAKER_00They have to be.
SPEAKER_01The guide points out that AO Smith operates the world's largest water heater factory right there in Tennessee. And they maintain a specialized network of certified installers. If you use non-certified labor to install the unit, or you try to just hack the gas lines together yourself, you instantly void the warranty on a multi-thousand dollar piece of equipment.
SPEAKER_00And if we connect this to the bigger picture, none of this infrastructure shifting is happening in a vacuum. It isn't just a fun new trend that early adopters in Knoxville are deciding to jump on.
SPEAKER_01Right, there's a deadline.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's a very real ticking clock driving this entire industry shift away from the old technology.
SPEAKER_01The Department of Energy regulations.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. The guide highlights that new DOE regulations are set to take effect on May 6, 2029. These new rules require major mandatory efficiency improvements for all residential water heaters manufactured in the United States.
SPEAKER_01So the federal government is effectively looking at that massive 18% slice of residential energy use and saying, we can no longer afford to let millions of homes keep giant pots of water boiling 24 hours a day.
SPEAKER_00That's pretty much it. They are forcing the market to eliminate standby heat loss entirely.
SPEAKER_01Which perfectly explains the neighborhood domino effect mentioned in the source material. Smart homeowners are looking at that 2029 deadline. They are seeing utility rates steadily climbing, and they are choosing to make the switch on their own terms right now.
SPEAKER_00Right. They want to beat the massive rush and secure the labor for those complex infrastructure upgrades before the entire market is forced into it at the exact same time.
SPEAKER_01So what does this all mean? When you zoom out and look at all these moving pieces, the thermodynamic lift required for East Tennessee groundwater, the rigid chemistry of descaling hardwater minerals, the sheer volume of gas pipe required to feed 200,000 BTUs, and the looming federal mandates, what is the ultimate takeaway for you, the homeowner?
SPEAKER_00It's a great question.
SPEAKER_01I think it comes down to a fundamental shift in how you manage the systems keeping your house alive. It is the shift from reactive homeownership to proactive homeownership.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Reactive homeownership is just crossing your fingers, ignoring the rust on the tank in the basement, and waiting for it to finally rupture. Right. At which point you are dripping wet, panicked, and entirely at the mercy of whatever unit happens to be sitting on the plumber's truck that afternoon.
SPEAKER_01Nobody wants to be in that spot. Proactive homeownership is securing the long-term energy savings now. It is planning for those upfront infrastructure costs and the city permits on your own schedule. And it is committing to the annual descaling process to protect the very expensive machine you just bought.
SPEAKER_00It is treating your home's plumbing and energy systems with the respect they actually demand. Yeah. Rather than just treating them like magic boxes that produce endless hot water. And honestly, I really want to commend you, the listener, for taking the time to explore this. Because understanding the actual physics behind the walls of your home, you know, why the water pressure matters to the sensor, why the calcium separates under heat, why the gas line needs to be a larger diameter. That deep understanding is exactly what prevents panic during an emergency. You are no longer flying blind when a contractor gives you a quote.
SPEAKER_01That's so true. But before we wrap up today, I really want to leave you with a final lingering question to ponder. Because when you really look at the scale of what is happening across the country, it opens up this fascinating puzzle. Oh. Yeah. We know the 2029 DOE regulations are pushing the nation toward these high-efficiency on-demand systems. We know that a single gas tankless unit jumps from using 30,000 BTUs to a staggering 200,000 BTUs in the blink of an eye. Or an electric unit suddenly yanks 160 amps of power.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I see where you're going. This raises a major question about our broader infrastructure.
SPEAKER_01It really does. Imagine a chilly Tuesday morning in the winter of 2030. Everyone in your neighborhood wakes up, everyone steps into the shower at roughly the exact same time to get ready for work.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01If every single home on your street is suddenly pulling 200,000 BTUs of natural gas or 160 amps of electricity all at the exact same instant just to overcome that freezing winter groundwater. How exactly are local utility grids going to handle that massive simultaneous shockwave of instant demand?
SPEAKER_00That is wow. That's a huge problem.
SPEAKER_01It makes you wonder if solving the invisible luxury of a hot shower in our own homes might just create a very visible problem for the grid outside. Just something to think about the next time you turn that handle and wait for the warm water to hit.