Most replacement water heaters in Greenwich are sized to square footage when they should be sized to actual fixture count and peak-hour demand. The result is a five-bedroom home with a forty-gallon tank that runs cold during the morning shower-tooth-brush-shower sequence, or an eight-bedroom home with two oversized tanks running at standby loss the firm could have avoided.
We re-size before we recommend. The calculation is not complicated — peak-hour demand by fixture, recovery rate by appliance, expected occupancy — and it produces a different answer than the rule-of-thumb table in the manufacturer's installation manual.
Tank, tankless, or recirculation
Tank water heaters work well in homes with predictable demand patterns and well-insulated installations. We install A.O. Smith and Bradford White in the high-quality tank category, gas or electric depending on the home's existing utility configuration. Tankless installations work well in homes with intermittent peak demand and good gas-line supply; we install Rinnai and Navien with appropriate manifold sizing and combustion-air arrangements. Recirculation loops eliminate the eleven-second wait at the upper master-bath fixtures in larger homes — they are the right answer for a 5,000-plus sqft home with the water heater on the basement opposite end of the building from the master suite.
Pricing
| Installation type | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Tank replacement (50-80 gal, like-for-like) | $2,400–$4,800 installed |
| Tankless installation (Rinnai/Navien) | $5,200–$9,400 installed |
| Recirculation loop retrofit (existing home) | $2,800–$5,600 installed |
| Recirculation loop in new construction | Included in rough-in scope |
Twelve-year average install lifespan on the tank brands we install; tankless installations frequently service eighteen-plus years with proper annual descaling.