Water Heater Installation in Lawton, OK
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What a new water heater in Comanche County has to handle
Winter nights here average 31°F from December through February, and homes run their heat from November through April. Cold ground water works the tank harder through those months, since it takes more energy to bring it up to temperature.
Power doesn't always stay on to do that work. A quarter of Oklahoma households lost power for 24 hours or more in 2024, and the county has seen 14 winter storms and 148 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A gas water heater with a standing pilot will keep making hot water through an outage. One that relies on electronic ignition won't light until the power is back.
The federal efficiency minimum for a storage water heater depends on its size. Tanks are rated against four different draw patterns, so two tanks of different sizes have to clear different minimums even if they're the same type. Whoever installs yours can tell you what your tank size requires.
- 31°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 6 months
- November through April, the months homes here need heat
- 25%
- of Oklahoma 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 $250 a year to run in Oklahoma compared with an electric water heater.
Estimates for a typical Oklahoma home, from EIA household energy data and Oklahoma fuel prices. Your home will differ.
- How do I know it's time to replace my water heater?
- Age is the first thing to check. Most tank water heaters last about a decade, and once you're past that, a repair might just delay the next failure by a few months. Watch for water pooling around the base, a tank that's rusting, or water that never gets quite as hot as it used to. If the tank itself is leaking rather than a fitting or valve, that's the tank failing, not a part, and it means replacement rather than repair.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- It depends on what you want out of it, not on any fault in a tank heater. A tankless unit heats water as you use it instead of storing it, so you don't run out during a long shower or back to back loads of laundry, and it isn't holding a tank of hot water all day waiting to be used. What it will not do is deliver hot water faster to a fixture far from the unit, since that still depends on how far the water has to travel through your pipes. A contractor can look at your gas line, venting, and water usage to tell you whether the switch makes sense in your house.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The biggest change is what's on your wall instead of what's on your floor. A tankless unit is smaller and mounts up, freeing the floor space a tank used to take. Gas tankless units usually need a larger gas line than a tank heater used, since they draw more gas in the moment to heat water on demand, and they need their own venting sized for that unit. A contractor will check your existing gas line and vent to see what has to change for your specific setup.