An Electric Water Heater money saving question...

[Inchworm]

x-posted from Lounge. I was hoping to find someone who actually practices this idea. I figure if I don't that probably means it isn't really saving.
__________
I was toying around last month with an idea to save on electric bill.

I flipped water heater off at the breaker. Well, I forgot about it really. A few times I suffered through a cold shower. The first one wasn't so bad. It was turned off for about 10 days.

My usage is at a record low. (I've been working on this of late)

KWH usage
1151 December's bill
Kicked brother out

855 January's bill
Started turning Stereo/Home entertainment/etc systems off at the power strip

572 February's bill
Cold as all hell. Furnace used a lot.

633 March's bill
483 April's bill
Turned off water heater for 10 days.

432 May's bill

My question is...

Would it cost more to heat the water up daily if I turn off at 10pm and on at 5pm the next day, or would it cost more for the heater to maintain the constant temp all day? Does anyone you know do this?

:hi:

[cbayer]

1. We only heat our water when we need it because of the electricity demand.

It will stay hot for almost 24 hours, then we heat it up again. If we just left it on, it would work to maintain a high temperature all the time and run down our batteries very quickly.

The heating coils in these tanks are very, very strong. It only takes about 30 minutes to heat our water from ambient temperature to scalding hot, but our tank is only 9 gallons.

You have probably found that you think more about using the hot water as well, not such a bad thing. I tend to group activities that will require hot water together - clothes washing, dish washing, floor washing and showering!

Sounds like a great idea you have!

:hi:

[Inchworm]

3. Thanks!

I'm turning it off now. 11pm

Will shower in morning and go from there.

:woohoo:

An experiment that pays :P

:hi:

[NMDemDist2]

2. we had a timer on our HWH in AZ

it worked great and if you put some insulation around it (they make 'blankets' for HWHs) it wouldn't take much at all to bring the heat back up

most families can get away with an hour or two in the AM and then about 3 hours at night

the rest of the time it can be turned off

[Inchworm]

4. I was thinking of adding one

When I got to looking the HWH is behind a stackable washer/dryer and it would be a bear to install.

I'll test manually and see how it goes.

Thanks!

:hi:

[Inchworm]

5. Update

18 hours later.

Turned HWH off at 11pm.

Took shower at 7am.

Washed dishes at 5pm.

Water was still hot enough to do dishes at 5.

Even if I decide to do a 2 day cycle that's 15 days off a week. I bet I'll keep it off more than that once I get organized :D

:woohoo:

:)

[cbayer]

6. Great news! You'll probably establish a nice pattern.

The switch for my water heater is very easily accessible, and that helps.

:toast:

[Warpy]

7. It's always cheaper to turn it off

but since cold showers are no damned fun in mid winter, I suggest you turn the thermostat setting to its lowest setting instead of turning it completely off and getting a nasty surprise.

The last electric water heater I got stuck with had that hidden behind an access plate, so don't be afraid to unscrew them and look.

[pengillian101]

8. Check w/your electric company about going off-peak.

Our large electric water heater is the one thing we have hooked up to a separate meter for off-peak. The bill is broken down by the meters we have.

The water heater uses less than $10 per month and we have never run out. It's pretty much what you are already doing, but it's automatic.

Good thinking turning yours off and saving the $$.

Your electric company may or may not offer the off-peak rate, but it's maybe worth a call.

:hi:

[Inchworm]

9. They did have that program 4 years ago and before.

Those who were on it could stay on it, grandfathered. It isn't offered any longer.

I did get some cheap CFC bulbs and a HWH blanket kit though.

Thanks for getting me to visit them. :)

:hi:

[kestrel91316]

10. Thank you for reminding me about this hint. I have electric hot water

and need to do SOMETHING about the ghastly electric bills to come in the hot weather when I will need to run the A/C to stay alive. I live alone, don't shower every single day, and am not averse to using cold water to wash my face and do my dishes most of the time, and could easily heat a little water in the teakettle if I needed some. I could turn the water heater breaker on at night before those mornings when I shower, or when I get home from work if I want an evening bath........And when it's really hot, the "cold" water isn't even close to cold anyway.

This is worth experimenting with.......

[Inchworm]

11. Also swing by your electric company

I was quite suprized. They had a showroom of stuff.

One section was cheap, cheap Water Heater Blankets and other energy saving ideas/brochures. I've yet to try my blanket, but my water stays hot for a long time as it is.

Good luck!

:hi:

[kestrel91316]

12. I am in an apartment so there's not much I can do, but luckily my own

water heater is in my unit (in a closet). It's brand new (when I moved in 18 mos ago). The water is still nice and hot enough for what I need this AM. I'll flip the breaker back tonight so it's hot for my shower in the AM. I'm assuming the breaker in the electrical panel is correctly marked, lol.

[WolverineDG]

13. Stupid question

how can you figure out what breaker the hot water heater is on? the only breaker marked in my box is the one for the air conditioner. :(

dg

[Inchworm]

14. Mine is a double (220)

Know what I mean? It is 2 singles that are connected.

My box has 3 doubles.

One for stove
One for dryer
One for water heater

I don't have a central AC but I'm guessing that would be a double as well.

:hi:

[conscious evolution]

15. Its usually a two pole 30 amp breaker

Stoves and AC units usually have 40 amp and up two pole breakers.Usually.
An easy way to tell is to turn the stove,AC and other 220 vac equipment on and then start turning off breakers one at a time and seeing what it turns off.

Someone upthread mentioned turning the HWH thermostat down.This is very good advice.The thermostat is usually found behind the upper electrode cover on the HWH.

[csziggy]

16. The timers work great and they are cheap

We installed the timers next to the electric box rather than at the water heaters in the old house. All we had to do was take the wire loose from the WH breaker, hook it to the timer, then run a short wire from the timer into the box. We had an electrician/friend do it for us.

We set them to turn on once a day for an hour each time. If it was a big laundry day or if we both wanted long hot showers in the winter, we could punch the button on the front to turn the WH on until the next cycle.

The timers come with four little widgets, two for "turn on," two for "turn off." You can put all four on to have two cycles on/off per day. If you manually turn the WH on between cycles, the next "off" widget will turn if off. The most annoying part of having the timer is that with random power outages in our rural location, the time creeps so the on and off times end up hours off. We just have to go in periodically and reset the time correctly.

The first month we installed the timers we saw at least a 15% difference in our electric bill.

Water heater timers make low budget light timers, too. We use them for the lights in our barn to control how many hours of light the horses get for breeding and showing reasons. And if someone forgets to shut them off, the lights turn off automatically.

[lizziegrace]

17. My water heater has a timer

but I have no idea if it's set correctly. I have thought about killing the power at the panel, but my 1846 house with questionable stairs makes the trip to the basement a little scary. Not to mention, I keep falling down stairs. Grace is not a word used to describe me...

I did get the tank wrapped in insulation, so that should help.

[lizziegrace]

18. I turned off my hot water tank at the panel last night

and still had hot water this morning. (I put an insulation blanket around the heater last weekend.) :)

It's going to become a daily ritual for me. Heat water from 6pm-10pm and off until the following day.

Thanks everyone!