Water heater for Showers

**papi smith** · February 17th, 2020 11:38 AM

Sir Travs, I'll ask the electrician if he still pull a wire, but the way I saw it, it looks like he can't because I think he used mica tube embedded on the beam up there.

Sir Walter, I hope I noticed this earlier, problem now is the whole wall is already tiled.

**papi smith** · February 17th, 2020 11:40 AM

Sir Travs, all of my outlets are universal 3 prong and have ground wires, of all outlets, the electrician had to miss this one

**travajante** · February 17th, 2020 11:47 AM

Originally Posted by papi smith

Sir Travs, all of my outlets are universal 3 prong and have ground wires, of all outlets, the electrician had to miss this one

Ohhhh....are you planning to have that lined? Probably partial wall surgery & retililing needed?

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**papi smith** · February 17th, 2020 12:04 PM

They are all installed Sir Travs, will tapping a ground wire to the concrete do, or it really needs to be tapped to a rebar?

**papi smith** · February 17th, 2020 12:07 PM

Btw, there's another outlet on the wall which has a ground wire, can I tap it there?

**travajante** · February 17th, 2020 12:17 PM

Originally Posted by papi smith

They are all installed Sir Travs, will tapping a ground wire to the concrete do, or it really needs to be tapped to a rebar?

A rebar that you know runs all the way to the subfloor is what you'd want, sir.

Originally Posted by papi smith

Btw, there's another outlet on the wall which has a ground wire, can I tap it there?

Check the heater load requirement against that circuit's allowable capacity, sir.

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**12vdc** · February 17th, 2020 12:19 PM

Originally Posted by papi smith

Sir 12vdc, would you know how I can fix this? This outlet is for water heater. But there is no ground wire. I bought the stiebel eltron that I saw posted here. Thanks.Attachment 35861

You have to run separate ground wire minimum AWG#10, should be earth bonded. If no existing grounding system there are available copper or GI grounding rod, maybe a 5ft will do depending on your location.

I use aircon plug, the 20A version, or if your heater is rated 3.5KVA you may use the standard Panasonic 16A 3-prong. Make sure to identify/tag the circuit breaker on the panel board. My 3.5KW single-point heaters uses 15A circuit breaker, no problems for 20yrs.

**12vdc** · February 17th, 2020 12:28 PM

Originally Posted by papi smith

Btw, there's another outlet on the wall which has a ground wire, can I tap it there?

Yes sure, just check if the ground is good. Using the AC Voltmeter, a typical balanced transmission(in the Metro) should give you 120-0-120V line to ground to neutral. On unbalanced system(Provinces) it should be 0-230-0. You may use an earth tester or Megger but that would require you a good reference ground, the test i provided above should be enough to make sure leakage current would go on that ground path instead of your body. If still unsure, you could double protection using GFCI and AFCI ckt breakers.

**papi smith** · February 17th, 2020 01:00 PM

Can I just use a GFCI outlet instead?

**travajante** · February 17th, 2020 01:38 PM

Originally Posted by papi smith

Can I just use a GFCI outlet instead?

GFCIs will give some added protection on wet areas like kitchens, baths, garages & outdoor outlets. However, Installing an outlet w/o the 3rd earth wire will NOT provide a ground path for three wire grounded devices. 2wire GFCI app will only provide protection against ground fault.

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