Before installing your electric hot water systems, you should have a rough idea about what is needed and what should be avoided. In general you can place your electric hot water system anywhere, but there are locations that are more ideal than others to reduce possible damage. The following simplified guidelines will help you to decide where to place your new system.
Accessibility
Your electric hot water system should be installed in a room where it can be easily accessed for check-ups, repairs and replacements when need be. It should be in a location which, if the system were to suddenly fail in the middle of the night while you were taking a shower, you would be able to comfortably go and see what the problem could be. On that note, however, the electric hot water system should not be in the way of daily activities. It should have its own room if possible. Otherwise, the garage or basement of your house could act as an alternative holding space.
Distance to Faucets and Wiring
Metal pipes are good conductors of heat. This means that when the hot water passes through the pipes from the electric hot water system to your shower, there is a lot of heat lost in the process. When electric hot water systems are far from the faucets, more heat will be lost and the hot water system will function less efficiently. Therefore, place the system as close as possible to the faucets of your house.
Leakage Management
Electric hot water systems have holding tanks which can sometimes leak. You should therefore have made prior preparations for when the leakages do occur. The first things you have to do is to have a raised platform where the water tank of your electric hot water system will be placed. The ground on which this platform is raised should be levelled to avoid spillage.
Raising the tank limits the amount of damage to your floors and walls if a leakage or flooding occurs. Below the platform should be a drainage path where the water can go in case of a leakage. Although this may not prevent flooding, it may reduce the destruction. For electric hot water systems with holding pans, consider putting an alarm or alerting system on the pan which will let you know when leakages occur. This will help you repair the tank fast before any flooding.
