Water Heaters - Replacing water heater, have 20amp circuit

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Momobadilak
05-24-08, 12:18 PM
Hi folks - just wanted to bounce a few things off you for a sanity check.

I have a 20amp circuit and a really old water heater that is leaking ...and just needs to be replaced.

At this point I don't really want to change the wiring and breaker - and so I'm planning on buying a new water heater that can work within the 20A circuit limits. I've looked at the box and the breaker in there looks ok - 2 20A breakers, side by side tied together..and dedicated to the water heater.

The new water heater is a 240v, 3800W (single element) heater. The specs say is draws 15.8 amp ..which is actually 3792W so I'm assuming they just rounded up.

So here are my calculations (please review) that make me think this heater should be ok for my circuit - and not end up tripping the breaker.

I've read in another post that the NEC says the circuit / breaker and wiring must handle 125% of the load:
15.8 * 1.25 = 19.75A which is <20A.

This appears to be good to me. What are you opinions?
Thanks!


furd
05-24-08, 03:00 PM
Yes, that is the proper calculation and the water heater is fine for the circuit.

Momobadilak
05-24-08, 03:09 PM
Thanks for your review!

Yes, that is the proper calculation and the water heater is fine for the circuit.