The final post about the Rheem 13 and my installation of the first shower in my new house.
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- So this is the terminal block that I needed to terminate, or in my method start running my 6-2 wire from. 6-2 wire, sometimes written 6/2 wire, is 6 awg (6 gauge) wire, with 2 wires (white and black) and a ground. I forgot to mark my white wire with black tape, indicating its a hot, so I’ll take care of that tomorrow.
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- This is my lovely 29+10% spool of wire that I had to purchase from my cross-town Lowes because the closest home depot doesn’t carry it. Lowes is somewhat closer than the nearest electrical warehouse where I order stuff from for work, but I also purchased this cable on Sunday, so that was out of the question. Also, the price wasn’t too bad. In the end, I managed to only need 28 feet, rather than my measured 29 feet, but hey, better have a few extra feet (only like $5 of waste).
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- After struggling getting my 3 wires into their terminal blocks, using my multimeter to ensure I had enough connection without too much extra resistance (highly recommend doing this step, if even just to ensure you have a good connection), I managed to get the cover back on and ran my wire down the support beam under my house. I had to trace some knob and tube and cut it out as part of this, since two lines were in my way… No big deal, it took me about 40 minutes to climb over, behind, and move enough stuff that I got my 30 foot spool to unwind and terminate in my breaker.
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- So I didn’t take any pictures of the inside of my panel, because I don’t feel like exposing my dad’s wiring job to the public, since it’s horrible and I need to redo the entire box… but I digress. Anyway, Jessy helped me with this, took about 15 minutes of working inside the panel to explain everything I was doing to her, and then actually do it in such a way that I didn’t rub my ground on the incoming leads. I have plenty of room left in this panel, so I feel comfortable using this 60 amp for now, though I may to use a second one when I install a second bathroom.
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- This moment was sweet. Jessy reminded me to turn the water on, but all-in-all, the wiring and panel work only took 2 hours. I didn’t have much doubt in the wiring or the energizing of the breaker, but in the end, anytime you wire something without a dedicated neutral, it’s basically like wiring a magical box and hoping it works. Anyway, the green light is the system light and the 2 red lights indicate that it’s working, so up next is a hot shower pic.
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- I tuned that little knob to my comfort temperature in just 2 trips and gosh did that feel good. Let’s see, I’ve been working on this shower for 2 weeks? Finally done PLUS all the other shit I got done because I had to do it JUST to install this shower, so happy I’m finally one step closer to having a usable house.
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- So the shower point of use is about 42 inches from the heater, I know this because the minimum distance is 36″ of copper before you hit pvc/pex piping. The water takes about 6 seconds to get to warm and a couple more to get to hot in the shower. Upstairs in the 1st floor half bath, the hot water took about 9-10 seconds to get warm. Either way, this is going to save me a ton of money this winter when I don’t have to use my furnace to heat my hot water anymore, and that’s the most important and satisfying benefit.
And it’s alllllll done.