Electric tankless water heaters can help stadium managers go green and participate in a larger movement when it comes to energy efficiency.

Athletes are not the only people who use energy when in sports stadiums – the Jumbotron, locker room facilities along and other stadium facilities all need energy to keep the game going. As a result, a number of newer stadiums are employing energy efficient technologies to limit power consumption, increase overhead savings and become more environmentally friendly.

Sports stadiums are interesting, because the amount of energy they consume fluctuates a lot depending on who is using it. During the National Football League regular season, an arena may peak on Sunday but not come close to that level of usage again until a week later. At times of peak use, the Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium uses about 10 megawatts of electricity. To put this into perspective, the entire country of Liberia uses about a third of that on its entire electric grid, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Sport's green movement
A number of prominent sports teams are looking to address these issues through more sustainable energy solutions. For instance, the Philadelphia Eagles, use solar panels and wind turbines to power its Lincoln Financial Field home, while the St. Louis Cardinals have been able to reduce energy use at Busch Stadium over the last three years by 24 percent, according to USA Today.

There are a number of ways that these organizations are working to reduce energy consumption. The aforementioned renewable energy systems are among some of the most popular, along with more efficient appliances.

How tankless can help
Hot water heating is the second most expensive utility in most buildings. In sports stadiums, hot water is needed in a variety of different settings, from the patrons' bathrooms and vendor kitchens, to the locker room showers and laundry facilities.

As a result, these organizations need to employ hot water heating systems that can address the various demands throughout a stadium. Conventional hot water heating solutions may not be able to do this in an efficient manner by way of their design. Hot water tanks are rather large and inconvenient, usually demanding their own space in the form of a utility closet in order to be properly and safely installed.

However, sports stadiums are massive, so a single tank likely won't be able to address all the hot water demands of the facility. This means that multiple tanks need to be installed taking up even more space. Another issue with these designs is that they constantly need to keep water at a certain temperature, meaning that they are constantly running, even if hot water isn't being used, as would be the case on an off day. This creates standby energy waste.

Tankless water heaters can address both of these issues. Because they are 90 percent smaller than hot water tanks, they can be installed at the point of use, eliminating the need for expensive utility closets. On top of this, they heat hot water on demand, meaning that they do not need to constantly run, which prevents standby waste.

These design advantages are among the reasons why tankless water heaters are 99 percent thermal energy efficient, as opposed to just 67 percent in even the most efficient tanks. They can also be incorporated into larger building energy systems. For instance, because many of these stadiums are running on electricity produced by renewable energy systems, electric tankless water heaters are better equipped to handle these demands compared with others that rely on natural gas.

Sports inherently require a lot of energy, but stadiums don't need to, and by using tankless water heaters, you can help reduce your facility's power consumption.