"Stormin Mormon" wrote in message
...
As the othe fine person inquired, do you have propane or
natural gas? Either of those is much less expensive for
heat. My sense is that you should leave the 40 gal tank
until it leaks, and then retrofit for a 40 gal gas water
heater.

Considering the cost of the heater, and the upgrade, and the
plumber, you're really spending a boat load of money for
very little storage space. You could buy an outdoor
Rubbermaid storage shed and a padlock, and have a bit of
money left over.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org


Agree that the current service capacity rules out
electric tankless. The other option would be gas,
but if space savings is the main attraction, agree with
the above, that it's an expensive way to get a very
small space.
And depending on how a gas unit gets vented,
where it is, running gas pipes to it, etc, you may not
have any usable space anyway.





.


"Mikepier" wrote in message
...
I currently have a standard 40 gallon electric water heater
on a 30
amp breaker. The panel is 100A service which also services
an electric
dryer. I was thinking about getting a tankless water heater
to save
space, but after reading some electrical specs on these
units, it
seems I would have some issues with the electric.

I have 1 bathroom and 1 kitchen and a washer. From the
calculations I
would need at least a 5 gpm unit.
If you look at the specs for the Rheem units, the RT18 needs
2
seperate 40A circuits, with maximum power being 75 amps.

http://globalimageserver.com/fetchDo...2-5934e3043c7d

Obviously my panel cannot support that. I could maybe drop
to the RT9
unit that requires 1- 40A breaker, but I'm concerned it
might be
undersized at 3 GPM, and also concerned that it uses 38
amps. If my
dryer is on, thats another 26 amps, and my 220V water pump
using 5
amps, totaling about 70 amps.
That leaves me with about 30 amps to spare.
So I could either upgrade my panel, or just stick with what
I have.
This is for a seasonal home in the summer. Just wondering
what
everyone else thinks I should do.