Adding a second water heater

[BHD]

I have a rooms in the shop/barn (meat room, milk room), but most of the time I I use a compact under counter 30 gallon heater, and use that 90% of the time, but when I cut meat, I have a 30 gallon gas heater on the other side of the room there hooked up in series, I have them valve-ed, so I can use one or both, I will run out of hot water when washing up with the electric 30, but with both working I have yet to run out,

but I would hook them up in series, yes one will bear most of the load, but with a little valve-ing one could use one or both and if one dies you will still have hot water, while one repairs or replaces the other,

 

[bigtiller]

So how would doubling the available amount of hot water to 3 teenagers solve the problem?

 

[joefromga]

This is like using 2 tiny backhoes when you need a 100 ton excavator.

Get a whole house tankless. It never runs out and saves energy. Bite the bullet!

 

[Deere Dude]

I've got three teenagers in the house and the 50 gallon electric water heater isn't keeping up, so I'm thinking about adding another. I have two questions I'm pondering.

The first is whether I have to run another circuit, I'd rather not. I have a run of 10-2 right now with a 30A breaker. My understanding is that each 220V device needs it's own circuit so I'm thinking of adding a panel at the water heaters with two 15A breakers. At 80% loading each could get 12A, which is 2600 Watts at 220V. I can get 2500W elements. Would it be OK just to replace all four elements with 2500 Watt ones?

Second question is serial or parallel for the hookup of the water heaters. It seems that with parallel you spread the load, while with serial the back one does all the work while the front one loafs, only coming on when you've exhausted the back. But with parallel you have to somehow balance the load, and if you don't you could drain one tank while the other one still has hot water.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

You are seriously over thinking the remedy that has been done for years.

First you take a shower and put the drain plug in the tub. Then the wife takes a bath, then the oldest kid, then the middle then the youngest. You can do the whole kit and kabootle with 5 gallons of hot water.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Yea, I sometimes wonder how our family of 9 ever got by on one full bath in the house and one water heater.
I took out a Marathon (still have it) to put in one of the more efficient heat pump / hybrid ones. The heat pump failed just after warranty went out, but they fixed it anyways (since it was a known defect). Now the heat pump has failed again, and I don't plan to have it fixed. Still running on the electric heat elements. Probably will put the Marathon back in, and use this one as a buffer tank from my geothermal.

 

[blackdog2086]

I agree with the tankless/on demand suggestions. I installed one 15 years ago and have had great results and 0 problems since. The newer ones are supposedly even better than mine.

 

[The Fred]

Buy an 80 gallon hybrid heater with heat pump technology, these double as an air conditioner too. Install in the warmest location available and you won't believe the savings over a regular electric hot water heater.

I installed one last Spring and hot water now costs about 10/month in electricity in fact I shut off the wood boiler zoned water tank because the new hybrid is way cheaper.

I have a good friend who is a plumber and he told me I wasn't going to believe the savings, he was right!

Good luck which ever you choose, Fred

Water Heater | Water Heating Systems | State Water Heaters for Hot Water | Premier Heat Pump Family | Products | State Hot Water Heater Systems

 

[City Farmer]

I agree, tankless is the best way to go if you want to fix the hot water issue. I think everyone has crossed this road. My water bill went through the roof so I put the hot water tank on the vacation mode and installed a shower head with a flow restrictor in their shower. On my hot water tank, that setting only gives the enemy 11 minutes of hot water. That fixed the high water bills for me. I tell the enemy the tank is half broke and need $600 for a new one and, I'm accepting donations. They haven't coughed up a penny and its been years. If they leave the lights on, the light bulbs come out. If they slam the door, the door comes off the hinges. The best is the wifi. When they're spending to much time on the web or TV, I barely unplug the router or the line coming in to the house. I tell them "I don't know, the service must be out", call Comcast. They'll go a couple days complaining, I just tell them to read a book. Somehow, it always comes back on the day the service guy is supposed to show up.

 

[zzvyb6]

I agree, tankless is the best way to go if you want to fix the hot water issue. I think everyone has crossed this road. My water bill went through the roof so I put the hot water tank on the vacation mode and installed a shower head with a flow restrictor in their shower. On my hot water tank, that setting only gives the enemy 11 minutes of hot water. That fixed the high water bills for me. I tell the enemy the tank is half broke and need $600 for a new one and, I'm accepting donations. They haven't coughed up a penny and its been years. If they leave the lights on, the light bulbs come out. If they slam the door, the door comes off the hinges. The best is the wifi. When they're spending to much time on the web or TV, I barely unplug the router or the line coming in to the house. I tell them "I don't know, the service must be out", call Comcast. They'll go a couple days complaining, I just tell them to read a book. Somehow, it always comes back on the day the service guy is supposed to show up.

They'll be sleeping at their boyfriends house asap....

 

[von-mil]

... I would hook them up in series, yes one will bear most of the load, but with a little valve-ing one could use one or both and if one dies you will still have hot water, while one repairs or replaces the other,

Here's another example that someone posted a while back. It's the same design as the one in the sketch above, but it sure looks a lot more complicated in real life.