Hot Water Heater wiring

[HayZee518]

Many of you know how confusing a water heater's wiring seems to be. After all you have two elements, each capable of 4500 watts when operating drawing about 27 amps of power. The thing is they don't operate at the same time!
Check out this diagram.....

 

[Nifty]

Weird, I just assumed the operated at the same time!

 

[HayZee518]

for single elements it doesn't present a problem but put another element into the mix and the amperage is doubled if both elements come on. a 4500 watt element draws 18.75 amps when it starts. 4500 divided by 240 = 18.75.
most heaters are wired in the sequencial start configuration. on a cold start, the upper element kicks in first. when it's satisfied its thermostat switches to the lower element. when that is satisfied the whole unit shuts down. NOW, when you draw hot water, you are removing water from the top of the heater and forcing the cold water down to the bottom where the lower stat is. Draw off enough hot water and the lower element kicks in to try to keep up with demand. If you pretty much empty the tank, the upper element turns on and the sequence begins again.

 

[Smart Red]

Just me nosing in with a pet peeve of mine. You have a cold water heater or just a water heater. You don't heat hot water.

 

[HayZee518]

I don't understand your "pet peeve" Explain....

 

[Smart Red]

I don't understand your "pet peeve" Explain....

I am very literal. Saying you have a hot water heater is redundant and erroneous. You are heating cold water - so you have a cold water heater or simply a water heater. The result is hot water in your water heater

 

[HayZee518]

OK, a "water heater" - now that we got that straightened out. Definition of a water heater: a tank of some sorts that stores water at ambient temperature. NOW, you heat this tank of ambient water to a level above ambient. It is now a hot water heater. Get my drift?
Continue to heat this ambient water to a point that is comfortable for the user. Not scalding but not uncomfortable for use.

 

[Montyj]

"Hot water heater. We have a hot water heater. What the heck do we need with that? Hot water doesn't need heating!" ---George Carlin

 

[Nifty]

y'all are too funny!

If there's one thing I've learned over the years, especially in business communication classes: "It doesn't matter if the terminology is correct, it matters if it conveys the intended meaning correctly."

For example: I HATE when people say, "I could care less!" It's totally incorrect, but everyone says it. In fact, so many people use it incorrectly that the exact proper message is conveyed, so it is actually acceptable usage in modern English.

Our girls are in school and we're now, more than ever exposed to the fact that a TON of English words, spelling, usage, etc. just makes no sense from a literal standpoint, but unfortunately the usage conveys meaning in a proper way, so we keep at it.

So, imagine if you went around saying, "I want to have a cold water heater installed". You'd be literally correct, but you'd be swimming upstream to get anyone to change over.