When we got the keys to the house we immediately noticed that the hot water heater was small — It was only 151 Litres (50 usgal)!
For a family of 4 (two adults and two children), taking a shower was going to be an ordeal if we wanted to shower back-to-back. Let’s do the math real quick. A typical shower head would have a 2.5gpm flow rate. So for a 50usgal tank without any hot water being used around the house, you will only have 20 minutes of hot water. But what you’re mixing with the cold water (nobody showers at 120F!) it will extend the shower time to around 30 minutes. That sounds reasonable for 2 adults.
And what about if we were cooking while they are taking a shower? That will definitely reduce the shower time by some margin.
Ultimately we decided that the tank too small for our comfort, so this definitely had to go.
