Homeowners have plenty of tough choices to make when finalizing their new home. By working with an experienced builder, you'll enjoy greater control over the little details of your home that will determine exactly how the building performs on a daily basis. That's why it makes sense to stay involved in the process of choosing appliances and materials for your home – stressing your preference to the contractors clearly will ensure that the house is built to your exact specifications. One way that you can make improve your home's performance in the long-term is by requesting that contractors take a distributed generation approach when installing your home's water pipes.

Fewer components means quicker, cheaper labor
One of the biggest differences between centralized and distributed generation water heating strategies is the amount of pipes needed to make the system work. If your home has a centralized water heater, then contractors would have to run two or three separate pipes (for cold and hot water) through every room in the house. Distributed generation instead requires a single water pipe run through the house – water is heated directly at point-of-use thanks to nearby installed tankless heaters.

This change does more than reduce the material count for your home's construction. By reducing materials, you can cut down the cost and length for your contractors at once. You can also save on the transportation costs associated with moving extra materials from the company's headquarters to your home.

Performance benefits of going tankless lead to long-term savings
The process of heating your home's water becomes much more efficient once you turn to tankless water heaters and distributed generation. Imagine a member of your family starts running hot water on the second floor – water would be wasted as it traveled up the stairs and down the drain while the water reservoir in the basement begins to empty out. As a result, the rest of the home suffers from limited hot water until the heater can warm the tank again.

A distributed generation approach resolves both of these efficiency problems at once. There's no risk of heat loss what water is heated at point of use, and installing multiple tankless water heaters ensures that every point-of-use in your home has access to on-demand hot water.

Going tankless allows your home to generate heat where it's needed.

Flexibility and scalability are key considerations
Engineering.com pointed out that there are key design advantages to distributed generation as well. The compact size of tankless water heaters mean that they can be installed almost anywhere in the home, making it simple to plan point-of-use heating. In addition, distributed generation makes it easy to scale a home's plumbing if you're considering a home addition. Simply investing in another tankless water heater provides a convenient solution for heating hot water in the new space.

New regulations should put homeowners on alert
Another factor that will likely impact your decision on what type of water heating strategy to deploy in your new home is the latest Department of Energy standards for residential water heaters. As of April 16, conventional water heaters across the board will increase in size and become more costly and difficult to install. High-end tankless water heaters are already so effective and efficient that the new regulations won't have an affect on their design. A reliable tankless water heater and distributed generation are a proven strategy – compare this value to the uncertainty inherent to trusting newly compliant machines straight off the assembly line.