5 ms·

If you're in USA or Canada, your house is probably over-wired and can handle some extra load. Plugging into the electric dryer outlet is good for 5760 continuou

If you're in USA or Canada, your house is probably over-wired and can handle some extra load. Plugging into the electric dryer outlet is good for 5760 continuous watts. The stove outlet is 9600 continuous watts. An electrician could easily add an additional one.

xattt 3y ago
Tankless electric hot water heaters can be rated for 24-36 ㎾ (max current draw 150 A)! These are wired with 3-4 8-gauge wires in parallel and connected to 40A breakers. The only limit to household wiring would be the capacity of the distribution coming into your home.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- repiret 3y ago
  I plumber I used to have do work for me told me a story about the first time he installed one: when he first turned it on, it blew a fuse at the substation a couple miles away. A few years later I got to know the person whose house it was installed in. And when the homeowner was talking about it he complained that the plumber didn’t install a big enough one and he had to have it redone.
  - acquacow 3y ago
    That certainly shouldn't be able to happen. The top of panel breaker should pop with a large enough load, and the mains on the street can handle quite a number of homes with supply. There's no way a single in-home unit should/could pop anything at a substation. The component at the substation likely just failed at that time.
    - xattt 3y ago
      I am wondering if there were no household loads on that circuit that had that level of in-rush current, the component was on its way out, and the new load pushed it over the edge.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- CapitalistCartr 3y ago
  Yes, they are, but most single family homes here have either a 150 or 200 amp main. Most families rarely exceed 120 amps, so adding 20-35 amps of intermittent load isn't a problem. On the other hand, tankless electrics often cause a service upgrade unless planned for new construction. Great for us electricians, less great for the homeowner.
- AdamTReineke 3y ago
  We had one (Stiebel Eltron 36KW) installed earlier this year which required a service upgrade to 320A service. AMA, though responses may be delayed a day or two. Our all-electric home's max instantaneous draw over the last a couple months peaked around 44 kW.
  - xattt 3y ago
    Big question is how have your energy costs changed? I am considering this vs a hybrid heat-pump tank model.
    - AdamTReineke 3y ago
      Just saw this, I would recommend going the heat pump route. In retrospect, it's insane to get an electric tankless hot water heater from a climate perspective. Gas tankless makes infinitely more sense if you need limitless hot water. If you don't need limitless, heat pump would be the most emissions efficient. I'll try to get my usage data together and update this comment. Edit: Cost of usage electric and gas over the last five years. The big spike last winter was due to our remodel and heating the whole house while it was neither sealed nor insulated in the middle of winter with just the 10kWh furnace backup heater which ran almost non-stop. Units are USD. The two gaps in data are due to meter replacements, I think. https://imgur.com/AVTFwpP https://imgur.com/AVTFwpP It's kind of hard to compare the data since we re-insulated, went from gas furance to heat pump, and added a hot tub.
      - AdamTReineke 3y ago
        Too late to edit, but on the imgur graph - yellow is electric cost, orange is gas cost.

xattt 3y ago

Tankless electric hot water heaters can be rated for 24-36 ㎾ (max current draw 150 A)! These are wired with 3-4 8-gauge wires in parallel and connected to 40A breakers. The only limit to household wiring would be the capacity of the distribution coming into your home.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
repiret 3y ago
I plumber I used to have do work for me told me a story about the first time he installed one: when he first turned it on, it blew a fuse at the substation a couple miles away. A few years later I got to know the person whose house it was installed in. And when the homeowner was talking about it he complained that the plumber didn’t install a big enough one and he had to have it redone.
- acquacow 3y ago
  That certainly shouldn't be able to happen. The top of panel breaker should pop with a large enough load, and the mains on the street can handle quite a number of homes with supply. There's no way a single in-home unit should/could pop anything at a substation. The component at the substation likely just failed at that time.
  - xattt 3y ago
    I am wondering if there were no household loads on that circuit that had that level of in-rush current, the component was on its way out, and the new load pushed it over the edge.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
CapitalistCartr 3y ago
Yes, they are, but most single family homes here have either a 150 or 200 amp main. Most families rarely exceed 120 amps, so adding 20-35 amps of intermittent load isn't a problem. On the other hand, tankless electrics often cause a service upgrade unless planned for new construction. Great for us electricians, less great for the homeowner.
AdamTReineke 3y ago
We had one (Stiebel Eltron 36KW) installed earlier this year which required a service upgrade to 320A service. AMA, though responses may be delayed a day or two. Our all-electric home's max instantaneous draw over the last a couple months peaked around 44 kW.
- xattt 3y ago
  Big question is how have your energy costs changed? I am considering this vs a hybrid heat-pump tank model.
  - AdamTReineke 3y ago
    Just saw this, I would recommend going the heat pump route. In retrospect, it's insane to get an electric tankless hot water heater from a climate perspective. Gas tankless makes infinitely more sense if you need limitless hot water. If you don't need limitless, heat pump would be the most emissions efficient. I'll try to get my usage data together and update this comment. Edit: Cost of usage electric and gas over the last five years. The big spike last winter was due to our remodel and heating the whole house while it was neither sealed nor insulated in the middle of winter with just the 10kWh furnace backup heater which ran almost non-stop. Units are USD. The two gaps in data are due to meter replacements, I think. https://imgur.com/AVTFwpP https://imgur.com/AVTFwpP It's kind of hard to compare the data since we re-insulated, went from gas furance to heat pump, and added a hot tub.
    - AdamTReineke 3y ago
      Too late to edit, but on the imgur graph - yellow is electric cost, orange is gas cost.