electric hot water heater

adutelle

will a 150 amp service be enough to run a 50 gallon hot water heater and how many amps does one of these draw?

nap

that would depend on what the elements are rated at. A 4500 watt element (one of the larger, if not the largest standard element I can think of) draws 19 amps so you would run a 30 amp circuit.

if you will have problems with your 150 amp service depends on what else is on it. In a typical 1000-2000 sq ft house, you generally are not going to have to much on the service unless you have full electric heat. The only way to really tell is do a load calculation and accounting of the current uses.

adutelle

how do i do the load calculations and how do you check to make sure the loads are balanced

nap

You can't really balance a residential panel. The loads are not continuous enough. Just make sure you don't have all large single pole breakers on one leg or the other.

a load calculation is basically making a list of the load descriptions and the circuit. Unless you have some big loads, you shouldn't have any problem with a 150 amp service. I have a 100 amp service, electric water heater, electric dryer, 3 1/2 ton A/C, gas forced air heat and have never overloaded my service.

jbfan

http://www.electricalknowledge.com/SFDLoadCalc.asp
This will help.
Are you replacing a gas unit with an electric?
Are you cooking and heating with gas?

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adutelle

Im thinking about replacing a 21 year old oil fired unit with an electric one

secutanudu

If you don't have electric heat, i can hardly see a problem.

BTW, hey neighbor! :P

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Andrew

adutelle

I have oil hot air heat , electric dryer, electric stove , also have a well pump(120 volts). It seems from what i have found these oil fired hot water heaters are expensive to replace

clashley

Assuming your 150A service is in good shape, you should be fine to use an electric WH. You'll need a dedicated 30A 240V circuit for the WH.

frenchelectrican

That should not be a issue to run a electric water heater at all but just plan it ahead if you install the water heater where you can not see the breaker box then put a local disconnect switch a simple A/C pull out switch will qualify for this.

Yeah I know oil fired water heaters are not cheap to replace but I have them in Wisconsin and in France it cheaper than electric due have very high heat recovery compared to straight electric water heater.

Most resdentail water heater useally required a 30 amp circuit with two pole breaker.

Merci.
Marc

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The answer will be based on NEC ( National Electrical code ) or CEC ( Cananda Electrical code ) or ECF ( Electrique Code France )