Water Heater Installation in Southaven, MS
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What a water heater in DeSoto County has to handle
Winters here are not hard on a water heater the way they are on a furnace, but the incoming water still runs cold from November through March, and the tank has to work harder to bring it up to temperature. That five month stretch is part of what a new unit here needs to be sized and rated for.
Power is the bigger issue. Nearly a third of Mississippi households went at least a day without power in 2024, and the county has logged 14 winter storms and 50 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A gas water heater with a standing pilot keeps working through an outage. One with electronic ignition or an electric tank does not come back on until the power does, then picks up again on its own.
Whatever size and type you choose, it has to meet the federal minimum efficiency for that size tank. The minimum is not one number across the board. It is set by a formula tied to the tank's rated volume, so two water heaters of different sizes are held to different standards even when they are the same type.
- 34°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 5 months
- November through March, the months homes here need heat
- 30%
- of Mississippi 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 $320 a year to run in Mississippi compared with an electric water heater.
Estimates for a typical Mississippi home, from EIA household energy data and Mississippi fuel prices. Your home will differ.
- How do I know it's time to replace my water heater?
- The clearest sign is water that comes out rusty or with a metallic smell, since that means the tank itself is corroding from the inside. Water pooling underneath the tank is another, because once the tank shell leaks it will not seal itself back up. Most tank water heaters last a decade or so, and if yours is getting close to that age, a repair is often just delaying a replacement you will need anyway. If the unit is making rumbling or popping noises, that is usually sediment built up on the bottom of the tank, and it means the heater is working harder than it should to heat the same amount of water.
- Should I switch to a tankless water heater?
- It depends on what you want from your hot water and what your home can support. Tankless units heat water on demand instead of storing it, so you do not run out of hot water partway through a shower, but they also need enough gas supply or electrical capacity to fire up at that rate. If your home loses power for stretches, it is worth knowing that a tankless unit needs power to run, same as a tank with an electric ignition, so neither keeps working without it. A contractor can look at your gas line, venting and electrical panel to tell you whether your house is set up for one or what it would take to get there.
- What changes when you install a tankless water heater?
- The biggest change is that hot water is no longer limited by tank size. A tank heater gives you a fixed amount of hot water before it runs cold and needs time to reheat, while a tankless unit heats water as it flows through, so it keeps up as long as it can match the demand. That usually means different venting, since tankless units often vent differently than a tank does, and it may mean upgrading the gas line or electrical circuit feeding it. Because of that, the installation itself is more involved than swapping one tank for another, and a contractor will need to look at your home's setup to know exactly what has to change.