Water Heater Installation in Bakersfield, CA
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What a Bakersfield water heater has to handle
Winter nights here average 37°F from December through February, cold enough that the incoming water is cold too, and your water heater has to work harder to bring it up to temperature. That demand doesn't let up for six months, November through April, while the rest of the house is also asking for heat.
Power is the other thing to plan around. In California, 17% of households went at least 24 hours without power at some point in 2024, and Kern County has seen 53 winter storms and 711 damaging wind events over the past ten years. Most storage water heaters come back on by themselves once power returns, but a gas unit with a standing pilot doesn't need power to run at all, which matters if outages are a real possibility where you live. Whatever size and type you choose, it has to meet the federal minimum efficiency for that size, since the standard is set separately for each tank volume rather than as one number for every water heater.
- 37°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 6 months
- November through April, the months homes here need heat
- 17%
- of California 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 $780 a year to run in California compared with an electric water heater.
Estimates for a typical California home, from EIA household energy data and California fuel prices. Your home will differ.
- How do I know it's time to replace my water heater?
- The clearest sign is age. Most tank water heaters have a working life of somewhere around a decade, and once you're past that, a repair is often just a delay, not a fix. Water pooling around the base means the tank itself is failing, not a fitting or valve, and that means replacement, not repair. Rusty hot water, a tank that's making noise, or hot water that runs out faster than it used to are all signs the tank is on its way out. A contractor can tell you whether what you're seeing is the tank aging or something smaller worth fixing first.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- It depends on what you want out of it, not on your old tank's age alone. A tankless unit heats water only when you run a tap, so you're not paying to keep a tank of water hot all day, and it won't run out of hot water partway through a long shower. It takes up far less space than a tank, since there's no tank to store. Switching also means changes to the gas line, the venting, and sometimes the electrical, so it's a bigger job than swapping one tank for another. A contractor can look at your home's setup and tell you what switching would involve for your house specifically.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The unit itself is much smaller and mounts on a wall instead of standing on the floor, so where it goes in your home changes. Because it fires up on demand rather than holding a tank of hot water, it often needs a larger gas line to deliver enough fuel fast enough, and its venting is different from a tank's, usually running through a wall or dedicated flue rather than an existing chimney. Some tankless units also need a dedicated electrical circuit for their controls. All of this means the installation involves more than disconnecting the old tank and connecting the new unit, so a contractor will need to check your gas line, venting, and electrical before the job starts.