Water Heater Installation in Gillette, WY
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Gillette asks a lot of a water heater
Winter nights here average 13°F from December through February, and homes run their heat from September through June, ten months of the year. The incoming water a new heater has to warm is cold for most of that stretch, not just the depths of winter.
Power does not always stay on through those months. Gillette has seen 49 winter storms and 202 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and about 8% of Wyoming households went at least 24 hours without power in 2024. A gas water heater with a standing pilot keeps working through an outage like that. One with electric ignition will not restart until the power does. The federal minimum efficiency for storage water heaters is set by a formula based on tank volume, so the number that applies depends on the size of the tank going in.
- 13°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 10 months
- September through June, the months homes here need heat
- 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?
- Age is the first thing to check, since most tank water heaters wear out after a decade or so of use. If yours is getting up there and you're seeing rust colored water, water pooling at the base, or a tank that's noisy when it heats, those point to the tank itself failing rather than one fixable part. A leaking tank won't get better and needs to be replaced, not repaired. If it's still fairly young and just not keeping up with hot water, a contractor can check whether it's a part like the thermostat or heating element instead.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- It depends on what you want from it, not on your current heater being old or broken. A tankless unit heats water as it's used instead of storing it, so you don't run out partway through a shower with a full house. It also takes up less space and can last longer than a tank if it's maintained. The tradeoff is that a tankless unit usually costs more to install and may need changes to your gas line or venting, so it's worth having a contractor look at your home before deciding.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The biggest change is that hot water is made on demand instead of stored and kept hot. That means no tank taking up space, and no limit on hot water as long as the unit can keep up with what's running at once. Because it heats water instantly rather than gradually, a tankless unit typically needs a larger gas line and its own venting, different from what a tank uses. A contractor can check whether your home's gas line and venting are already sized for that or whether they need to be changed as part of the installation.