replacing Atwood water tank with dual use water tank.

[CharlesinGA]

Two of those red wires have the words "water heater" printed on them. Bottom pic, far left has a red wire and a white wire on what would be the fault light. The white is 'most likely' the ground, and the red would be the blue off the water heater that powers the fault light (12v voltage coming back from the control board on the heater to operate the light)

The next two red wires would be on the water heater switch. One wire would be a 12v positive from somewhere 'most likely' the 12v fuse panel, fuse #5 which has a red wire, and is the "water pump/appliances" fuse. The other red wire is going to the water heater to connect to the brown on the old heater, and on the new one, that same wire will connect to the ORANGE wire (the on heater wiring switched from brown to orange for the gas control)

I would suspect that is the original wiring on the motor home, but am blow away by the heavy wire that was used and the 20 amp fuses, crazy actually for something that does not use but one or two amps.

Question, do you think you would be able to run one more wire from the area behind the switches to the water heater? It would only need to be 16 gauge. Rocker switch like this would be good as it has a base to mount it. Rocker switch link. My suggestion is what is annotated in the pic of yours below.

Edit: You must verify which terminal is hot all the time, and which is hot only when the switch is on. You want the one that is hot all the time.

 

[CharlesinGA]

Will this MH be driven different places? If you are stationary and do not have shore power, how do you propose to charge the batteries? Do not expect to run the water heater off the batteries via the inverter, that will last about 5 minutes.

Charles

 

[benneufeld]

Will this MH be driven different places? If you are stationary and do not have shore power, how do you propose to charge the batteries? Do not expect to run the water heater off the batteries via the inverter, that will last about 5 minutes.

Charles

i have a 2200 honda generator as well as three 455 watt solar panels that’s i plan to run 90% of the motorhome off of. will that be enough wattage if it’s just me using tè water.
To Answer your question no i’m not moving it just boondocking atm.

 

[benneufeld]

Two of those red wires have the words "water heater" printed on them. Bottom pic, far left has a red wire and a white wire on what would be the fault light. The white is 'most likely' the ground, and the red would be the blue off the water heater that powers the fault light (12v voltage coming back from the control board on the heater to operate the light)

The next two red wires would be on the water heater switch. One wire would be a 12v positive from somewhere 'most likely' the 12v fuse panel, fuse #5 which has a red wire, and is the "water pump/appliances" fuse. The other red wire is going to the water heater to connect to the brown on the old heater, and on the new one, that same wire will connect to the ORANGE wire (the on heater wiring switched from brown to orange for the gas control)

I would suspect that is the original wiring on the motor home, but am blow away by the heavy wire that was used and the 20 amp fuses, crazy actually for something that does not use but one or two amps.

Question, do you think you would be able to run one more wire from the area behind the switches to the water heater? It would only need to be 16 gauge. Rocker switch like this would be good as it has a base to mount it. Rocker switch link. My suggestion is what is annotated in the pic of yours below.

View attachment 169556

thank you charles!
I will

Two of those red wires have the words "water heater" printed on them. Bottom pic, far left has a red wire and a white wire on what would be the fault light. The white is 'most likely' the ground, and the red would be the blue off the water heater that powers the fault light (12v voltage coming back from the control board on the heater to operate the light)

The next two red wires would be on the water heater switch. One wire would be a 12v positive from somewhere 'most likely' the 12v fuse panel, fuse #5 which has a red wire, and is the "water pump/appliances" fuse. The other red wire is going to the water heater to connect to the brown on the old heater, and on the new one, that same wire will connect to the ORANGE wire (the on heater wiring switched from brown to orange for the gas control)

I would suspect that is the original wiring on the motor home, but am blow away by the heavy wire that was used and the 20 amp fuses, crazy actually for something that does not use but one or two amps.

Question, do you think you would be able to run one more wire from the area behind the switches to the water heater? It would only need to be 16 gauge. Rocker switch like this would be good as it has a base to mount it. Rocker switch link. My suggestion is what is annotated in the pic of yours below.

View attachment 169556

thank you charles!

i can definitely try to wire it to to the water heater. is there any type of device that allows you to send a 12 gauge wire down that black plastic conduit??

as my water is located on the opposite side of of the motorhome. so it may be difficult.
thanks again!

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

It's painfully obvious you lack the basic electrical skill/knowledge to do this upgrade safely. We can give advice but the chances of you making a serious mistake, maybe even a fatal one, are [to me] uncomfortably high. You really need a knowledgeable friend to help guide you or a pro to do it. Its not a plug & play sort of thing. And I'll say the same about your future plan to add an inverter, a much more complex sort of power upgrade. The basics aren't difficult to learn but some hands-on training is crucial to success. Charles is doing a terrific job of explaining but he won't be there to look over your shoulder every step of the way.

Having said that, here are some further comments:

1. I notice that your load center (breaker panel) is already full of breakers so there is no space to add one. I'm all but positive you are looking at doing an upgrade to your 120v electric panel (breaker box)
2. An inverter is neither required nor very practical for operating an electric water heater. Or much of any sort of electric heat device. Even your Honda 2200 will be working hard to meet the heater demand (1400 watts whenever it is heating) in addition to whatever else you ask of it.
3. Your existing water heater switch (for gas operation) and adjacent red light are fine and you can just re-connect those wires to the new heater terminals. And the 12v source that feeds to the gas switch can also supply an electric mode switch if mounted nearby. You only need to add a single switch for the electric mode and feed a small single wire (16 gauge is plenty) from the new switch back to the heater's electric mode relay terminal.

 

[Tulecreeper]

It's painfully obvious you lack the basic electrical skill/knowledge to do this upgrade safely. We can give advice but the chances of you making a serious mistake, maybe even a fatal one, are [to me] uncomfortably high. You really need a knowledgeable friend to help guide you or a pro to do it. Its not a plug & play sort of thing. And I'll say the same about your future plan to add an inverter, a much more complex sort of power upgrade. The basics aren't difficult to learn but some hands-on training is crucial to success. Charles is doing a terrific job of explaining but he won't be there to look over your shoulder every step of the way.

Having said that, here are some further comments:

1. I notice that your load center (breaker panel) is already full of breakers so there is no space to add one. I'm all but positive you are looking at doing an upgrade to your 120v electric panel (breaker box)
2. An inverter is neither required nor very practical for operating an electric water heater. Or much of any sort of electric heat device. Even your Honda 2200 will be working hard to meet the heater demand (1400 watts whenever it is heating) in addition to whatever else you ask of it.
3. Your existing water heater switch (for gas operation) and adjacent red light are fine and you can just re-connect those wires to the new heater terminals. And the 12v source that feeds to the gas switch can also supply an electric mode switch if mounted nearby. You only need to add a single switch for the electric mode and feed a small single wire (16 gauge is plenty) from the new switch back to the heater's electric mode relay terminal.

Bless you for the honesty of that post, Gary. Hopefully, the OP will heed this advice before there is a flash and a mushroom cloud on the horizon.

 

[benneufeld]

Two of those red wires have the words "water heater" printed on them. Bottom pic, far left has a red wire and a white wire on what would be the fault light. The white is 'most likely' the ground, and the red would be the blue off the water heater that powers the fault light (12v voltage coming back from the control board on the heater to operate the light)

The next two red wires would be on the water heater switch. One wire would be a 12v positive from somewhere 'most likely' the 12v fuse panel, fuse #5 which has a red wire, and is the "water pump/appliances" fuse. The other red wire is going to the water heater to connect to the brown on the old heater, and on the new one, that same wire will connect to the ORANGE wire (the on heater wiring switched from brown to orange for the gas control)

I would suspect that is the original wiring on the motor home, but am blow away by the heavy wire that was used and the 20 amp fuses, crazy actually for something that does not use but one or two amps.

Question, do you think you would be able to run one more wire from the area behind the switches to the water heater? It would only need to be 16 gauge. Rocker switch like this would be good as it has a base to mount it. Rocker switch link. My suggestion is what is annotated in the pic of yours below.

Edit: You must verify which terminal is hot all the time, and which is hot only when the switch is on. You want the one that is hot all the time.

View attachment 169556

Hey so quick update on the wiring you said to do. I wired in the 16 gauge wire for the second rocker switch you were talking about. It went much better than I was expecting.
I pulled the old water tank out and there are three wires for me to connect the new tank up to for the gas side of things.


my new tank has this 120v heavy duty coated wire coming out the back with both white and black (hot & ground)


White connects to white, now where do I connect the ground?

orrr is this lack of a second wire because the previous owner didn’t hook it up for 120v electrical after all?

Thanks again
Regards Ben N

 

[CharlesinGA]

Thats an old model that does NOT use electronics to control the 120v AC. You would simply install it and run the existing wires to the same places as the current one, and then a 14 gauge romex thru a 120v rated switch of your choice to switch the power off and on the heat element. It has its own separate temp controls for the electric element, separate from the ones on the outside for the gas, Forget every thing I've said previously about switches and wire, except you need to run a switched 120v to it (where the one is cut off in the pic.

As Gary noted, you need someone familiar with electrical to assist you. I don't want to get any deeper in the weeds.

Charles