Installed a Direct Vent Water Heater

[AccidentalMiser]

One of my rentals has a direct vent water heater which started leaking.  I replaced it today.  Lord, what an expense!  But it's done and Mrs. AM and I did it all in about six hours.  Very pleased with ourselves.

[wheezle]

So, I'm getting this done right now, out of necessity. I'm concerned that the power venting means that I won't have hot water if the power goes out. Do you have a way to deal with this?

I'm wondering about getting a generator to hook up to the panel box somehow. Not that this is a huge deal, but I'm used to non-power-vented water tanks...

[Jon Bon]

So, I'm getting this done right now, out of necessity. I'm concerned that the power venting means that I won't have hot water if the power goes out. Do you have a way to deal with this?

I'm wondering about getting a generator to hook up to the panel box somehow. Not that this is a huge deal, but I'm used to non-power-vented water tanks...

Well your water IS already hot when the power goes it, so it is not binary. So if you are careful you could have hot water for 12-24 hours depending. But yeah it wont kick on when the power is out.

Id be way more worried about the food in my freezer or just dealing with extreme heat/cold than being without hot water.

[AccidentalMiser]

The one I installed wasn't a power vent model, it just has a three inch combustion exhaust pipe inside a six inch combustion air intake pipe with no electrical connection.  It does require a big hole in an exterior wall.

How often do you lose power for a sustained period of time?  I only recall one power outage at our current house that lasted more than an hour in the past four years of living here but I recognize that some folks have more outages than that.