Behold the water heater! It must go.
(April, 2010)
So our water heater died. The pilot light wouldn't stay lit. It was probably a bad thermocouple, but it was the original water heater, and it was probably due for a replacement. My dad had gotten a tankless water heater and loved it. We'd been thinking about getting one of those for awhile too. We got a this. You can buy them on Amazon.
Our water heater is in a closet in the garage, against an exterior wall. This simplifies things quite a bit, as the original exhaust vent is inadequate for the new tankless heater. The other criteria are 3/4" water lines and a 3/4" gas supply line, which we had. It also needed an electrical outlet.
Behold the water heater! It must go.
And it's out of there. This went fast. It's always easier to rip things out than it is to put them back together again.
Now that I have room, I need to install an electrical outlet. It's a gas heater, but it needs power for the thermostat and electric starter. The most convenient place to tap into is the
breaker panel on the wall in the garage. In between the breaker panel and the water heater is the closet with the
AC/heater unit. I poked the wire up through a punchout in the breaker panel and up into a small airspace accessible
from the AC closet, then pulled it up and over to the water heater.
It's on its own circuit. I added the bottom breaker on the left. I'd never added a circuit breaker before. They just
snap in, no muss no fuss.
Here's the new outlet. I got one with a cover in case something goes horribly wrong and water goes spraying all over
the place.
New water heater hung on the wall. I mounted some plywood onto the studs, and then mounted the water heater onto the
plywood. I used the existing hole for the exhaust vent. There's another vent hole behind the plywood. I covered that
up from the outside.
Copper water pipe all soldered in. This took me an entire Saturday. Yeah, there are some new scorch marks on the walls.
I was intending to do the gas line on Sunday, but decided to do that last, because I knew I wouldn't want to do anything else once I was done with it. So I finished framing in the vent, hooked up the thermostat, and a few other miscellaneous things, and it was time to hook up the gas line.
By this time, it was 4 in the afternoon, and I was tired. When I get tired, I sometimes make mistakes. If I make mistakes on the water lines, stuff gets wet. If I make mistakes on the gas lines, my house explodes. And it was just enough outside my comfort zone that I decided that maybe I'd better let the professionals handle it.
Wendy had a line on a good plumber. She called them on Monday morning, they came by at 3, and were done by the time I got home. Final result?
All done. The copper pipes are wrapped to keep them from freezing in the unheated garage. The yellow pipe is the
professionally-installed gas line. The clear vinyl tube carries any condensation from the inside of the exhaust vent to the ouside of the house. I need to tidy that up a bit...
This is the exhaust vent on the outside of the house. I'll paint it this weekend.
How does the thing work? It's awesome. The hot water just doesn't stop. You can shower as long as you want. It's glorious!