Mobile Home gas water heater

by Mark Bower

If you've priced a new manufactured home gas water heater lately, you've discovered that sealed combustion units cost over 5 WITHOUT installation. Are gas water heaters still the way to go? In my opinion the answer is 'NO'.

Water heater manufacturers must display on the unit itself the estimated annual operating cost. If anyone has recently made a trip to the local home improvement store to examine those stickers, you'll notice that electric water heaters cost twice as much to operate than natural gas. Hmmmm. Take a closer look at those stickers and you'll find that many manufacturers are still quoting energy rates from 1994! Back in 1994 it did cost twice as much to operate an electric water heater than gas (assuming no special price breaks were given on electricity as some cooperatives may do). So for the most part, those stickers from some companies are worthless.

Computing the annual operating cost of a gas water heater is tough to do because gas prices fluctuate monthly. I recently spoke to a retired technician who specialized in gas and energy usage, and he said that when natural gas costs reach 91 cents a therm, they pretty much equal the cost of operating an electric water heater. Right now (February 2005), natural gas in my area is $1.44 per therm. According to the technician, right now it's costing me a lot more to operate a gas water heater than electric.