Uniformat D2020
Water heater, electric, storage tank
Also called electric hot water tank, electric water heater
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).
How sources are chosen and recorded: sourcing policy.
Municipal lives for plumbing (D20)
26 municipalities in Ontario and British Columbia state a life for plumbing as a whole, in 18 distinct tables: 15–50 years, median 25. 34 rows come from capital asset policies (accounting lives, used for amortization) and 1 from asset management plans (planning lives, used to forecast replacement). They describe the system rather than this component, and none is a measured life.
Years. Each dot is one stated life and each bar a stated range; equal values stack. Hollow marks are planning lives from asset management plans; filled marks are accounting lives from policies. The dashed line is the median. Policies that copy the same table count once.
All 27 stated lives
| Municipality | As written | Years | Kind | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kingston | Building Fixtures | 15 | accounting | p15 · 2016 |
| Meaford | Plumbing - Water Treatment System | 15 | accounting | p17 · 2020 |
| Trent Lakes | Mechanical Systems - Fixtures | 15 | accounting | p10 · 2009 |
| Fort St. James, Revelstoke, Rossland, Sicamous, Tumbler Ridge · same table | Electrical/Plumbing/Fire | 15–20 | accounting | p5, p9, p7, p9, p5 · 2010 |
| Okanagan-Similkameen | Electrical/Plumbing/Fire | 15–20 | accounting | p11 · 2023 |
| Salmo | Electrical/Plumbing/Fire | 15–20 | accounting | p6 · 2016 |
| Comox Valley | HVAC systems, mechanical, plumbing, wiring, etc. | 20 | accounting | p6 · 2010 |
| Cranbrook | HVAC, plumbing, lighting, etc | 20 | accounting | p9 · 2010 |
| Telkwa | Electrical/Plumbing/Fire | 20 | accounting | p8 |
| London | Building Components - Services (HVAC, lighting, communication, plumbing etc.) | 20 | accounting | p2 · 2023 |
| Meaford | Plumbing - Fixtures | 20 | accounting | p16 · 2020 |
| Meaford | Plumbing - Boiler | 20 | accounting | p17 · 2020 |
| Lantzville | Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing | 25 | accounting | p11 · 2019 |
| Meaford | Plumbing - Septic System | 25 | accounting | p17 · 2020 |
| Rainy River | Building Improvements - Electrical/Plumbing | 25 | accounting | p11 · 2010 |
| Rainy River | Building Improvements - Electrical/Plumbing | 25 | planning | p17 · 2026 |
| The Blue Mountains | Septic System | 25 | accounting | p11 · 2019 |
| Bancroft, Centre Hastings, Hastings Highlands, Wollaston · same table | Electrical/Plumbing | 25–30 | accounting | p5, p4, p6, p5 |
| Greater Napanee | E30 Chillers, Rink Piping, Fuel Storage Tanks | 30 | accounting | p16 · 2012 |
| Grey Highlands | Septic System | 30 | accounting | p11 · 2026 |
| The Blue Mountains | Plumbing System | 30 | accounting | p11 · 2019 |
| Trent Lakes | Mechanical Systems - Piping | 30 | accounting | p10 · 2009 |
| Parksville | Plumbing Infrastructure | 50 | accounting | p9 · 2023 |
| Greater Madawaska, Quinte West · same table | Piping | 50 | accounting | p17, p38 · 2025 |
| Meaford | Plumbing - System | 50 | accounting | p16 · 2020 |
| Meaford | Plumbing - Cistern | 50 | accounting | p16 · 2020 |
| The Blue Mountains | Cistern | 50 | accounting | p11 · 2019 |
Of 35 rows, 2 were compared with an image of their page; 33 were matched to their page automatically (the label and number appear in the page text). Follow the page link before relying on an automatically matched row. About the policies · All approved rows as JSON
Preventive maintenance
4 tasks in 1 work order.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 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.
Annual · 4 tasks
Source: TM 5-692-1 Maintenance of Mechanical and Electrical Equipment at Command, Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Facilities: Recommended Maintenance Practices, Table 12-1 Domestic water system
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, v0.5.0. https://unfinished.one/c/water-heater-electric-tank/v/0.5.0BibTeX
@misc{unfinished_water_heater_electric_tank_0_5_0,
title = {Water heater, electric, storage tank},
author = {{unfinished.one}},
year = {2026},
version = {0.5.0},
url = {https://unfinished.one/c/water-heater-electric-tank/v/0.5.0},
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