I’ve lived in several houses and duplexes over the years.
Most of those places had electric water heaters, but a couple of them had gas water heaters instead.
I can tell you that I liked the gas models far better, for the following reasons:
1 – For a given capacity, gas water heaters are generally more economical to operate than their electric counterparts.
I found that out first hand after moving from a duplex unit that had an electric water heater to a virtually identical unit that heated its water with gas.
After the move my electric bill dropped by about $35. Of course I had to start paying a gas bill, but that was usually less than $20 per month.
That was a savings of $15 each and every month!
2 – Due to the way they work, gas water heaters recover (i.e. reheat the water in the tank) in about half the time it usually takes an electric water heater of the same size and water capacity.
Again, I learned this by personal experience.
3 – If you have a gas water heater you’ll still have hot water during power outages.
A heavy snowstorm once knocked out the power to my neighborhood and it was three days before they got it back on.
I was able to take hot showers the entire time the power was out!
Disclaimer: As I said earlier, I learned everything mentioned above from personal experience, so your results might be different from mine.
You can easily do your own research via Google and decide for yourself if a gas water heater is right for you.
Bottom line: I don’t recommend replacing a perfectly good electric water heater with a gas model, but when it comes time to replace your existing water heater you should definitely consider purchasing a gas unit.
If you ever decide to switch to a gas water heater, I recommend that you watch the following short video from Lowes before you purchase one.
Note: As always, you can watch the video at full screen by clicking the “square” icon in the lower right-hand corner of the video.