Water heaters Redwood City

Swapping a Redwood City water heater: straps, roof vents and relief drains

Redwood City wants a plumbing permit before a water heater is swapped, raised, lowered or moved, and its handout, revised in January 2026, reads like the inspector's notes: straps offset from the controls and blocked to the wall, a relief drain that never climbs, bollards where a car could reach the tank. It also keeps water heaters out of bedrooms, bathrooms and their closets. Switching to a heat pump runs through WestLight Energy, the new name of Peninsula Clean Energy.

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  • Rules on this page checked against 17 public sources, October 2026

Asked most

Redwood City water heater questions, answered from city and county rules

Our water heater sits in a closet off the primary bathroom. Can the new one go back there in Redwood City?

The city's handout says water heaters cannot be installed in bedrooms, bathrooms or their closets, so expect the plumber to propose another spot. Relocating a heater is itself on the list of actions that need a plumbing permit, and the new spot then has to meet the garage or closet rules and work for the vent and the gas line.

Who supplies the electricity a heat pump water heater would use in Redwood City?

WestLight Energy buys it and PG&E delivers it, with both charges on one PG&E bill. WestLight is the name Peninsula Clean Energy took in 2026. Its default ECOplus service is described as 100 percent clean, half renewable and the rest hydro, and customers can move to ECO100, which is all renewable.

What does the Redwood City inspector want to see at the final?

The handout lists inspection code 304 on the automated system, booked once the heater is in and every part of the work is complete. The permit card and the approved job copy of any drawings have to be there for the inspector, and a job that is not ready, not reachable or still missing corrections can mean a second inspection.

Redwood City's City Hall
Redwood City's City Hall. Photo: King of Hearts, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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Free to request, and you agree the scope and price with the person you hire before work starts. In California, a job over $1,000 in labor and materials, or one that needs a building permit, must be done by a contractor licensed by the CSLB in the right class. Ask for the license number and check it at cslb.ca.gov.

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Permits and local rules

Where Redwood City and the county put their water heater rules in writing

  1. Replacement Water Heaters

    The Building Division's two-page handout, revised in January 2026, requires the plumbing permit to be in hand before work starts and says plainly that water heaters cannot be installed in bedrooms or bathrooms or their closets. It asks for insulation on the hot and cold pipes within 5 feet of the heater and along the whole length of a recirculation line, and a pan with a drain wherever a leaking tank could damage wood framing. The final inspection follows once all the work is complete.

    City of Redwood City Building Division (opens in a new tab)

  2. Work Requiring and Work Exempt from Permits

    Redwood City's 2025 list keeps small gas repairs out of the permit system: replacing a minor part that does not alter the equipment's approval or make it unsafe needs no permit, which covers a thermocouple or a gas control valve. It also deals with the heater that fails at a bad moment. Under Section 105.2.2, when equipment has to be replaced or repaired in an emergency, the work may go ahead and the permit application then goes to the building official within the next working business day.

    City of Redwood City Building Division (opens in a new tab)

  3. San Mateo County's heat pump water heater permitting guide

    The county's Office of Sustainability states that a permit is required in every San Mateo County jurisdiction for a new or replacement water heater, and that the permit is needed to qualify for most rebate programs. Its guide also offers a shortcut on the electrical side: a WestLight Energy customer can email for the home's peak electrical demand data and attach it to the permit application to show the panel's spare capacity, in place of a full load calculation.

    San Mateo County Office of Sustainability (opens in a new tab)

State license for this work: C-36 Plumbing, C-20 Warm-Air Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning, C-10 Electrical. Look up a contractor's license on the CSLB website (cslb.ca.gov).

The work

What the city's handout asks of a replacement heater

  • A gas tank in the garage

    In a garage, the new heater must be a flammable-vapor-ignition-resistant model or stand high enough that its ignition source is 18 inches above the floor, and the handout calls for bollards wherever the tank sits in the path of a car. Straps go in the upper and lower thirds, the lower one kept 4 inches or more clear of the controls, with the coupling bracket offset so it is not directly over them and blocking between the tank and the wall. A sediment trap follows the shutoff, which sits within 6 feet.

  • A vent that has to clear the roof

    A replacement is when the vent gets a second look. The handout wants double-wall Type B vent with an inch of clearance to combustibles, ending in a listed cap at least a foot above a roof of up to 6:12 pitch and 5 feet above the highest draft hood. Connector sections take three screws at each joint, tape may not seal or support them, and no fastener may pierce the inner wall. When a furnace shares the vent, the smaller appliance joins above the larger one.

  • Relief drains and closet air

    The temperature and pressure relief drain may not run uphill, may not empty into the drain pan, and must leave the building and end pointing down, 6 to 24 inches above grade, with no threads on its end. Redwood City accepts hard-drawn copper, galvanized pipe, CPVC or pipe listed for the purpose. A heater in a closet needs two openings of at least 100 square inches each, one within 12 inches of the top and one within 12 inches of the bottom.

  • Going electric with WestLight's help

    WestLight Energy supplies Redwood City's electricity, and since 2026 that has been the name of Peninsula Clean Energy, which began serving homes in 2017. Its Home Upgrade Services come in three tiers: self-service planning tools and rebates, a free personal electrification consultant, and a full-service installation in which WestLight lists the permit among the things it handles. Under the first two tiers the owner or the contractor still pulls the city permit, and the county's guide notes that most rebates require one.

Two wall-mounted tankless water heaters plumbed with copper supply lines
Two wall-mounted tankless water heaters plumbed with copper supply lines. Photo: Behrat, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The houses here

Eichler slabs, a planned town on salt ponds, and county hillsides

Redwood City's housing puts the heater in very different places. Joseph Eichler built here as he did in Palo Alto, on concrete slab floors with radiant heating cast in, so nothing can be rerouted under the floor. Redwood Shores rose on bay mud that the Leslie Salt Company had used for evaporation ponds, as a master-planned community of single-family homes, townhomes and apartments. Emerald Lake Hills carries Redwood City addresses but is unincorporated San Mateo County. Wherever the house is, the location sets the rules: a garage brings vapor-ignition and car-impact requirements, a closet brings combustion-air openings, a floor over wood framing brings a drained pan, and a bedroom or bathroom closet is ruled out.

Part by part

Two corners of Redwood City where a swap takes an extra step

  • Redwood Shores

    A tankless heater hung on an outside wall, a new vent through the roof or a heat pump's outdoor unit is an exterior change, and in ZIP code 94065 the governing design board approves those before work begins. Townhome associations add their own CC&Rs, so the city's policy for association properties suggests sending the association's stamped approval with the permit plans rather than revising them later.

  • Emerald Lake Hills

    These oak-covered hills have Redwood City mailing addresses but sit in unincorporated San Mateo County, so the water heater permit and its inspection run through the county's Planning and Building Department rather than City Hall. Check the parcel's jurisdiction before a plumber prices the job, because the city's handout and its inspection code are not the ones that apply there.

Before you hire

Pin these down before the old Redwood City tank comes out

  • Will the straps be offset from the controls and blocked to the wall, the way the city's January 2026 handout draws them?
  • Does our existing vent reach a foot above the roof and 5 feet above the draft hood, or is vent work in the quote?
  • If the tank fails on a weekend, will you file the permit application by the next working business day?
  • For a heat pump, will you use WestLight peak-demand data or a load calculation to show the panel can carry it?
  • Is your C-36 Plumbing license, or C-20 for a heat pump installer, current at cslb.ca.gov?

Free, no obligation. Next, add your details in the request form.

More questions

Still deciding?

Can a new gas tank still go into a Redwood City house after 2026?

Under the Air District's adopted rule, small gas tanks manufactured after January 1, 2027 must emit zero NOx, so a gas unit is still possible if it was made before then. On November 4, 2026 its Board considers moving that date to January 1, 2028 and adding exemption certificates, including ones for low-income owners, whose list of qualifying programs names the CARE and FERA utility discounts.

Where these facts come from

Checked against these public sources in October 2026. Rules and programs change: confirm permit requirements with the city before work starts, and a contractor's license on the CSLB website.

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