Water Heater Installation in Cody, WY
Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Park County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Cody asks a water heater to run all year, in real cold
Your water heater works every month here, not just in the coldest stretch. Winter nights average 12°F from December through February, and the incoming water it has to heat starts out cold too. That's a long stretch of hard work with no break to recover on.
Power does not always stay on through a Wyoming winter storm. Park County has seen 120 winter storms and 192 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and statewide, 8% of households lost power for 24 hours or more in 2024. A gas water heater with a standing pilot will keep working through an outage. One with electronic ignition will not light until power is back. Either way, whatever gets installed has to meet the federal minimum efficiency for its size and type, since the standard is set separately for each tank size and draw pattern.
- 12°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 8%
- of Wyoming 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 $300 a year to run in Wyoming compared with an electric water heater.
Estimates for a typical Wyoming home, from EIA household energy data and Wyoming fuel prices. Your home will differ.
- How do I know it's time to replace my water heater?
- The clearest sign is water that comes out lukewarm or runs out fast, especially if that is new. Rust colored water from the hot tap, a tank that is rusting or bulging at the seams, or water pooling underneath are all signs the tank itself is failing, not just a part inside it. A water heater making popping or rumbling noises has sediment built up on the bottom, which shortens what life it has left. If yours is old enough that a repair and a replacement cost close to the same, most people choose to replace it once the tank itself is the problem, since a leaking tank cannot be repaired.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- That depends on what you want from it, not on one being better than the other in every home. A tankless unit heats water on demand instead of storing it, so it does not run out of hot water partway through a long shower or back to back loads of laundry. It also takes up much less space than a tank. Against that, a tankless unit needs a gas line and venting sized for it, and in a house where winters run as cold as they do here, incoming water starts colder, which the unit has to work harder to raise. A contractor can look at your gas line, venting, and hot water use and tell you whether the switch makes sense for your house.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The biggest change is that you stop storing hot water and start heating it as it flows through the unit. That means no more running out partway through, but it also means the unit needs enough gas supply and the right venting to fire at full output, which a storage tank did not need in the same way. The unit itself mounts on a wall instead of sitting on the floor, so where it goes in your house will likely change too. Because the gas line and venting requirements are specific to the unit's size, a contractor will need to check both before installation to confirm what your house can support.