A note of warning to anyone considering an electric tankless water heater:
make sure that your incoming electrical service can handle the load. I
recently put one in the house I just built, after upgrading the electrical
service from 100 amps to 200 amps. Thought it wouldn't be a problem, as the
heater draws 'only' 116 amps at peak flow (and startup).
Problem is the utility had my house and one other served from a 10KVA
transformer. Oops. The heater alone is 28kW. I got them to change it out
after a bunch of fighting with them, as the lights in both our houses
flickered as the heater's control system dialed in its current draw. But
they only put in a 25kVA unit, so I have to continue the fight with them
until they put in a decent sized transformer. The problem is their
transformer sizing charts are based on typical draws, not large relatively
instantaneous changes in current flow.
Mark Miller
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