"John Grabowski" wrote in message
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"Stormlady" wrote in message
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I'm looking for opinions/advice on these. I've just purchased a house
and the current hot water boiler is in the closet in the child's room on
the second floor. Aside from the fact that this renders her closet
practically useless for hanging clothes, I'm concerned that if it leaks
there's going to be a huge mess with damage to her room/floor and the
floor below. Unfortunately due to the layout of the house (4 mini
levels/split level in a townhouse) and the location of the plumbing,
there's nowhere else to put the boiler so I was considering getting one
of the tankless systems. I think this could be installed in the crawl
space under the 2nd level, (tank would never fit in crawl space). The
house is currently wired with 125 amp service providing electric heat for
1200 square feet of living space with 2 adults and 2 small children
living there. Is it feasible to install? Is there anything else I
should consider? Is 125 amp enough to run one of these? This is my
first house and I've owned it less than a week, so I know nothing about
anything when it comes to home renos/installs....


You will probably need more than 125 amps just for the tankless water
heater. Gas is not an option? If you are only concerned about flood
damage get a plumber to install a pan under the current water heater.
There probably is a drain line for the temperature pressure relief valve
which can be connected to the pan.

Gas is not really an option, that would have to be a totally separate
system, running from a tank just to run the heater. I think that would end
up running way more than we could afford to install, there's no natural gas
lines where I am in Newfoundland.

It's not just the flood damage, with only 1200 sq feet, the bedroom is
rather small, around 100 sq feet so the closet being basically null is a lot
of space to lose, especially with a 3 year old. Of course the flood concern
is the major one. The boiler is about 6 years old now, so I'm sure it'll be
going soon and need to be replaced and we were looking at options to get it
out of her room. If we can't get it out of her room, and can't get the
tankless system, we'll definately have to get a pan and drain line. It
makes me very nervous in it's current location.