Do you have a tripping problem with your water heater? When you do, you get a problem with your size breaker for water heater. Here, there is the possibility that the capacity of the breaker cannot match the watts and volts. Check the following explanation to get the best size breaker for your water heater.
How to Check the Safety of Electric Water Heaters
One of the common mistakes in purchasing an electric water heater is people do not check its amperage even though it is important. People also do not notice it since the tanks only have a label for the watt and voltage.
To ensure the safety of water heaters, you can choose a 220 or 240 volts water heater based on the wattage and tank size. It is an essential thing to consider because the voltage will play an integral part in a healthy circuit of the water heater.
Besides, the wattage is important information you should know before purchasing a water heater. This info could help you to determine the right breaker to handle it. Also, the last consideration is the wire size used in the water heater. An incompatible wire size can cause a higher risk for the heater and breaker trip.
Best Size of Breaker for Water Heater
When you are clueless about the size breaker for water heater, you must know the ampere of it. You can use a simple calculation to get the answer using the ampere formula, which is I = P/V. I is for ampere, P for watts, and V for volts.
For instance, you get a water heater with 3,000 watts and 120-volt power. From the information, the amperage of this water heater is 25 amps from 3,000 watts divided by 120 volts. To avoid overloading and over-tripping, the value of 25 amps must be multiplied by 125%, so you get the value of 31.25 amps or 35 amps for the closest breaker.
In addition, for a 50 gal water heater breaker size, you can choose a 30 amps breaker with 10 gauge wire to avoid tripping problems in your water heater. A lower value of size breaker is not recommended for safety issues.
Size Breaker for Tankless Water Heater
What size breaker for tankless water heater? A tankless water heater will come with a manual with a specified electrical requirement including the size breaker needed. Otherwise, you also can check the size breaker in the size chart provided by the manufacturers from online resources.
In general, this kind of water heater needs a 40 to 50 amps size breaker for each wire. It means that when you have three heating elements in the tankless water heater, so you require three wires and circuit breakers.
The Bottom Line
Choosing the size breaker for your water heater is important to make sure safety while you use it. In addition, when you are not confident enough to determine by yourself, you can ask a professional to help you in choosing the size breaker for water heater.