Uniformat D2020

Water heater, electric, storage tank

Also called electric hot water tank, electric water heater

• Confidence B
• Version 0.4.0 (permanent link)
• Reviewed 2026-10-22

This is version 0.4.0. The latest is 0.5.0.

Service life

Years in service. The band runs from the shortest to the longest life the sources state, so it shows how much they disagree, not how long 80% of units last. The line is the median of the stated lives.

Basis

• 12–15 years · CNA e-Tool Estimated Useful Life Table, p10 · HUD CNA 3.4.1.2.6 “Residential hot water heater, gas or electric” — U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (planning life)
  Family properties 12 years, elderly 15. US multifamily housing.
• 12 years · Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Commercial Water Heating Equipment (final rule), 88 FR 69686, October 6, 2023, p79 · “"commercial electric and gas-fired storage water heaters ... estimated average useful lifetimes of these two types of equipment are 12 and 10 years"” — U.S. Department of Energy (planning life)
  Printed page 69764. class: commercial electric storage water heaters. Stated in the shipments analysis; electric units were not regulated by this rule, so no LCC table covers them.
• 15 years · Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Water Heaters (final rule), 89 FR 37778, May 6, 2024, p82 · IV.F.6 “"DOE estimates the average product lifetime to be around 15 years for storage water heaters"” — U.S. Department of Energy (planning life)
  Printed page 37859. residential: consumer electric storage water heaters, including heat pump water heaters (DOE found no lifetime difference).
• 12.5 years · General depreciation rates (IR265), July 2021, p44 · BDFO “Water heaters (not over-sink type)” — Inland Revenue (Te Tari Taake), New Zealand (accounting life)
  Printed page 44. Storage water heaters, fuel not stated. BDFO Building fit-out (when in books separately from building cost). Printed DV 16%, SL 10.5%. Tax depreciation lives set by the Commissioner of Inland Revenue for New Zealand income tax, not engineering or asset-management lives; they are banded and often short (e.g. reticulation piping 25 years). The July 2021 edition was the newest PDF reachable; the online Depreciation Rate Finder may hold later determinations.

How sources are chosen and recorded: sourcing policy.

Preventive maintenance

4 tasks in 1 work order.

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. 6
7. 7
8. 8
9. 9
10. 10
11. 11
12. 12Annual

Months from the schedule start. Download the tasks as CSV for a CMMS, or ask the MCP tool get_pm_schedule for dated visits.

Frequencies are ISO 8601 durations in the data (P3M = every 3 months).

Open questions

• HUD's row is for residential water heaters; commercial storage heaters may differ.
• Every source here is a published planning, design or accounting life. None is observed replacement data.
• Some maintenance intervals come from TM 5-692-1, an Army manual for mission-critical (C4ISR) facilities; they may be tighter than typical commercial practice.

Know the answer? Send it with a source to [email protected].

Cite this

Citation

unfinished.one (2026). Water heater, electric, storage tank, v0.4.0. https://unfinished.one/c/water-heater-electric-tank/v/0.4.0

BibTeX

@misc{unfinished_water_heater_electric_tank_0_4_0,
  title = {Water heater, electric, storage tank},
  author = {{unfinished.one}},
  year = {2026},
  version = {0.4.0},
  url = {https://unfinished.one/c/water-heater-electric-tank/v/0.4.0},
  note = {CC BY 4.0}
}

Licence CC BY 4.0 · How to cite · JSON · Versions: 0.5.0, 0.4.0, 0.3.0, 0.2.0, 0.1.0