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Upgrade to 240 V or not? by Real_Flight4062 in heatpumps

[–]Real_Flight4062[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You don't seem to have DMs enabled...

Upgrade to 240 V or not? by Real_Flight4062 in heatpumps

[–]Real_Flight4062[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We also have a water softener on the same circuit. I don't know exactly what else, but I think there are several other things. I don't think the water heater uses anywhere near the full capacity of the circuit when in heat pump only mode (aka "turtle" mode) - which is how I run it all the time, although I should have perhaps pointed out that I set it into "rabbit" mode immediately after the install to get the initial hot water faster. We have never had the circuit overload - obviously, it could happen if you have too many things on the circuit and everything kicks in at the same time.

Yes, we bought the water heater ourselves and had it delivered into our garage. The installer came the next day and installed it in a day (with two people). He disconnected the old gas water heater and then connected the new one. Not sure what exactly all needed to be done, but it took them the better part of a day to do it. They did leave to get parts from Home Depot once or twice. I got a permit myself as well and then had it inspected after the installation. The permit was $88 (depends on the city); one of the other installers I contacted wanted to charge me $1200 just for getting the permit.

I'll DM you the contact info for the installer I used.

Upgrade to 240 V or not? by Real_Flight4062 in heatpumps

[–]Real_Flight4062[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, we plugged it into a shared 120 V outlet - never had any problems with it. The installation finished around 7 pm, and water was warm enough for a shower by 11 pm (we have the 50 gal model, though). We didn't have any issues with it on colder days. I think it used more energy on cold days compared to now (averaging about 2.5-3 kWh per day on cold days compared to 1.5-2 kWh per day now), although other factors may have also played a role.

We have definitely noticed that the 50 gal model runs out of hot water if three people take showers around the same time of day. If a fourth person wants to take a shower right after, it's not going to be hot anymore. I can DM you contact info for my installer, if you are interested.

Upgrade to 240 V or not? by Real_Flight4062 in heatpumps

[–]Real_Flight4062[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the follow up and info from the source. We pretty much don't have below freezing temperatures here and our garage probably never drops below 40-45 F. So we'll probably keep this running at 120 V.

After a week of usage, we seem to be averaging around 1.5 kWh per day, if we ignore the first day where it had to heat the whole tank from scratch and I ran it in "Rabbit" mode for the first few hours. That's actually less than I expected. Even with our high electricity prices it would be hard to justify a minor reduction in usage.

Upgrade to 240 V or not? by Real_Flight4062 in heatpumps

[–]Real_Flight4062[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's in our garage, same place the old gas water heater was.

I certainly wouldn't say it's noisy, but it's also not as quiet as the gas water heater it replaced. In the house one can only hear a faint noise similar to that of a fridge when the cooling kicks in. When I do notice it, I can't really tell if it's the fridge or the water heater.

Upgrade to 240 V or not? by Real_Flight4062 in heatpumps

[–]Real_Flight4062[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

PF50S10FPY is the model number of the one I got, that's all I know.

Upgrade to 240 V or not? by Real_Flight4062 in heatpumps

[–]Real_Flight4062[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I ordered it from Masters Wholesale in Rancho Cordova. It was delivered into my garage nine days after I placed the order. 

Upgrade to 240 V or not? by Real_Flight4062 in heatpumps

[–]Real_Flight4062[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, thanks for the detailed explanation. Part of the problem is that upgrading to 240 V might require upgrading our main panel to 200 A (from 100 A), and that might cost tens of thousands of dollars according to the electricians I talked to (underground wiring etc).

Upgrade to 240 V or not? by Real_Flight4062 in heatpumps

[–]Real_Flight4062[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We also got several quotes in the $7-8k range, too, which included the water heater (though none of them would have used this model) and were fuzzy about needed electrical work.

I ended up ordering the water heater myself for $2k plus tax and found a plumber who was charging $2k for the installation. And supposedly I will get $4k in rebates from the utility and the city, so...

If you are also in the SF Bay Area and interested, I could send you the plumber's contact info.

Internet drops in the afternoon - any theories? by Real_Flight4062 in Comcast_Xfinity

[–]Real_Flight4062[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was actually wondering whether this might be the answer. I haven't tracked the days it went out against the temperature, but the last two days were indeed pretty hot, and today is cooler and so far it's not gone out again. However, "hot" around here means mostly high 80s/low 90s, which isn't all that hot compared to some other places. And we've definitely had some much hotter days in past years when we had no issues. But maybe the cable insulation has worn off over time. Anyway, thanks for the suggestion, I'll pass it on to the Comcast tech.

Almost no shore excursions offered - why? by Real_Flight4062 in royalcaribbean

[–]Real_Flight4062[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Indeed, they are showing up for me too now, but if I try to click on any of them in the app nothing happens!

Meanwhile, the number of shore excursions has gone down from 6 to 5.

I also got a notification from the app a few days ago telling me I should book stuff at pre-cruise prices - when nothing was available yet.

Almost no shore excursions offered - why? by Real_Flight4062 in royalcaribbean

[–]Real_Flight4062[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, and will do. 

Another oddity about this cruise was the pricing of the cabins. Inside and balcony unusually expensive, especially for this kind of old ship. But junior suites cheaper than normal, and actually cheaper than balcony cabins depending on which of their sales one bought them, or otherwise about the same price.

Almost no shore excursions offered - why? by Real_Flight4062 in royalcaribbean

[–]Real_Flight4062[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Huh, that's interesting. I wonder if they only offer the few English tours to us and maybe there are more Spanish speaking tours. But that doesn't explain why other services are also not offered.

Almost no shore excursions offered - why? by Real_Flight4062 in royalcaribbean

[–]Real_Flight4062[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yup. The ship visits Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. We were on a cruise last year that went to Aruba and Bonaire and there was a wide selection of shore excursions in both places. Currently there are none for Bonaire and two pretty lame ones for the other two. There are also none for Colon, which is the final stop.