Wire size for 120V water heater?

[Thatguy]

And I think the Indian-Indonesian anti-defamation league will soon be contacting you about that kid in a bowl about to be eaten by a snake.

Some Germans sent me this pic. I'll pass the buck to them if the kid disappears and the snake has grown noticeably larger.

Here's some bedtime reading
http://www.illinoisconstructionlawbl...oes%201-18.pdf

[ballvalve]

Its a pity that a 10 gallon water heater costs more than a 50 gallon job.

You can find a 20 gallon mobile home one for 250$ or look at motor home water heaters, and get a small 120 volt element, maybe 1200 or 1500 watts, and you could plug it in under the sink without more wiring. That would likely be cheaper than a recirc system, and you can super insulate the unit too.

If you use a lot of water at that sink, your incoming cold could be the HOT in from the water heater. That should fill in the "lag" time

[Thatguy]

You only have to make up 1 gallon of cold water per 100' of 1/2" ID pipe. It's ~800 BTU for a 90F rise, so using 1200 W it'd take ~11 minutes to recover.

You probably have the whole morning to recover. A 120w heater will take 1.8 hours to recover.

Decide on what tradeoffs you can make and then hope somebody makes a heater that does this.

8.3 pounds/gal
90 F rise
747 =BTU

according to
http://www.onlineconversion.com/
this many BTU per hour equals
219 watts

with 1200 w
this takes
0.1825 hour
10.95 =minutes

[ballvalve]

Right, so a 1200w or less 5 or 10 gallon WH under his sink, with the hot from normal heater as infeed would solve his issue pretty cheaply with less issues than recirc.

Would also keep his undersink warm and dry, an advantage toward cabinet survival.

[Thatguy]

Yes, I hope we find out how it finally worked out. The OP certainly has all the facts by now.

Mr. Valve, you are definitely not a run-of-the-mill electrician.

Good. You can make up for the [name deleted] types in this world.

[Artie]

I will definitely let everyone know what I finally decide on. I really appreciate all the info and ideas. I like the idea of feeding the small tank from the larger one.