Gas water heater

Needs power

Heats domestic hot water by burning gas, either on demand as the tap runs or into a stored cylinder. On-demand avoids keeping a tank hot for nothing; a cylinder copes better with several draws at once.

One of 6 ways to meet Domestic water heating. Build 3/6, Upkeep 3/6, Efficiency not rated. Cost, carbon and footprint below are rated against those 6, not in absolute terms.

Cost
Low
Upkeep
Occasional
Skill to build
Specialist
Lifespan
Long; scale in hard water shortens it more than age does
Embodied carbon
Medium
Space / material use
Low
Output timing
On-demand/controllable
Skill to repair
Specialist
Regulation (FR example)
Gas appliances must be installed and commissioned by a qualified fitter, and a French installation is subject to periodic inspection.

What your site needs

A gas supply or room for a tank, and a compliant flue route

Inputs

Outputs

Ranking in its sub-function out of 6 alternatives

Every option in this sub-function, with the value on each axis and a note on what drives it (this solution highlighted):

SolutionBuild skillUpkeep burdenEfficiency
Thermosiphon solar water heaterIntermediate3#1
Compost-coil water pre-heaterBasic3#3
Electric or heat-pump water heaterSpecialist8#4
Batch solar water heater (integrated collector-storage)Intermediate3#2
Wood-stove flue water heater (thermosiphon coil)Intermediate4#2
Gas water heaterSpecialist6N/A

Build skill and upkeep burden are proxies (lower burden = simpler to maintain); the efficiency column is this sub-function’s ranking, 1 = best. “N/A” where an axis isn’t rated here.

Sources

No sources recorded yet.

Tutorials

No build tutorial recorded yet.

What this page does not tell you

No sizing or quantities: how much a technique yields, and how much a household needs, both depend on the build and the people, so the catalogue compares options rather than dimensioning them. It carries no bill of materials and no build sequence, and it is written for an oceanic, clay-soil climate (Normandy, France). Regulatory notes are indicative and need confirming locally.