How Is Well Water Heated?
One of the common questions we receive from our clients is, “How is well water heated?” The simple answer here is that it’s heated in the same way as municipal water—it comes into your home and passes through your water heater before getting sent to the tap you’ve opened up.
The water does not get heated within the well itself—any water that gets pulled from the well will be cool before it gets heated up in your water heater.
How do water heaters work?
The better question, then, is not to ask how to heat well water in Columbia, TN, but rather how a water heater works.
The water that comes into your home, whether it’s through a well or through a municipal water system, will come in through a series of pipes, and will be cool or cold (mostly depending on the time of year). Water heaters come in a variety of styles, the most common of which is the traditional heater that has a big metal cylindrical tank that holds water. However, there are also tankless varieties that take up significantly less space.
The water heater will have a thermostat that controls the temperature of the water inside the tank, or the temperature to which a tankless heater will heat up the water. Usually you’ll set this temperature at anywhere from 120 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit—hot enough that it will be sufficient for your household purposes, but not so hot that it will become a potential safety issue. You can set your water heater to a lower temperature to save energy, if you wish.
The dip tube in the water heater brings cold water from your water lines into the bottom of the water tank, where the water begins to heat up. The heating mechanism (usually a burner) will stay on until the water in the tank reaches the desired temperature. The heated water will rise to the top of the tank. At the top of the tank is a heat-out pipe. As the heated water rises, it will then flow out of that heat-out pipe at the top.
The natural fact that heat rises does most of the work for heating up the water in the tank—otherwise, the actual operation of the water heater is quite simple.
If you have a tankless water heater, then obviously the system will work a little differently. In such an appliance, an electrical element or gas burner will warm up the water as it flows through pipes and into the unit. The hot water supply does not get stored in the tank—instead, it’s heated as it’s used. This is what makes tankless water heaters more cost effective and helps them to conserve more water. There is a common misconception that tankless water heaters are not sufficient for well water, but this is false.
For more information about how well water is heated and how water heaters work in Columbia, TN, we encourage you to contact Action Electric Motor & Pump Repair today.
Categorised in: Water Well Systems