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So, this is my situation, and I'm just wondering what a real electrician would do. I don't have any money right now and can't call anyone, so I'm just living without hot water and using the RV campground's bath house.

My propane water heater broke, and I didn't like using propane anyway, so I bought a small electric water heater for RVs. It does not plug into a plug outlet. Instead, it has wires that have to be permanently hardwired in. I didn't really understand how much of a problem that would be when I bought it.

I was imagining *hypothetically* how it would be done. I'm not comfortable trying it myself and don't have any tools anyway. I don't want to burn my house down.

In the place where the existing broken propane water heater is, there are a few small wires attached to various things. I could imagine disconnecting them, and attaching them to my new electric water heater. However, they're too thin. The wires coming off the electric water heater are a few gauges thicker. I know, from the tiny bit of reading I've done, that this would be bad. I'm not going to attach thick wires to thin wires.

So, what would an electrician do to make more wires in an RV when there aren't any more? A big thick plug cord plugs into an outdoor plug at the camp site. It comes into the wall of the RV, then gets divided into a limited number of wires with a limited amount of current. The circuit breaker shuts off if I run too many appliances at once, like running the microwave while a couple electric space heaters are on.

How would you go about running thicker wires for an electric hot water heater? You'd have to add wires that aren't already there, but you could take away wires to the existing, broken propane water heater that I don't want. The place where all the wires come into the wall is behind a couch, and I have tables and junk in the way, making it hard to open up the couch - it folds out. So I can't even see what it looks like at the place where the thick outdoor plug wire comes into the wall and splits into individual wires. Are there empty spaces for adding new wires?
 
you need to save some dollars and get an electrician in. too much risk of fire or injury if it's done wrong. maybe an electrician will give you a free quote, so you know where you stand.
 
How about a photo of the rating plate on the electric heater. And maybe any electrical outlets. Or what voltage is the water heater and how many watts or amps is it? What make is it, is it for RVs'
 
we need more details ?
How much power is available to you at the pedistal ?
What outlets are there ?
How much power does your new water heater need ?
my best guess is a new cable will have to be run.
But we need lots more info to be more specific
 

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