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HOW TO SAVE ELECTRICITY ON WATER HEATERS?
Question by Aviva:
How to save electricity on water heaters?
What consumes the least electricity on a daily basis – lowering the temperature and keeping the water heater running 24/7 or turning the water heater off altogether except for a couple of hours each day (right before we shower). The second option is the basic concept of using timers, which are known to save electricity, but will I be consuming a lot more electricity by heating the entire tank day after day?
For your expert comments!
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Answer by ideaquest
Use it only when you need to. Since heating has a lag time, you can turn off the heater when you start showering as the water will still be hot for a while.
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about 1 year ago
We have a stone lined tank, 110 gal. that used to have a computer timer on it. The timer went bad, we had someone take it off, and just wire it straight. We just turn it off, after it heats up and it will hold heated water for 2 days. You can do the same with a regular hot water tank, no need to heat it when you are not at home during the day. Or you can put a timer on it. Rather than buy a new timer, we just turn ours off.
about 1 year ago
If you can make some slight adjustments in your lifestyle, you can save a ton of money by getting on a ON PEAK/OFF PEAK program with your public utility or local electrical co-op. We’ve had a timer on our water heater for more years than I can count and it works just fine. Our OnPeak hours are from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM each day, Mon-Fri. Each evening, at 9:00 our electric costs go way, way down, per kwh, till 7:00 AM. the next morning. Friday evening at 9:00 PM till Monday morning, 7:00 AM., we’re on the lower cost rate. So we have adjusted so that we do clothes washing and drying on weekends, or in the evening, as well as showering either after 9:00, or before 7:00.
Present day water heaters are insulated with injected foam, so they are quite energy efficient, losing very little heat through the shell itself, so if we don’t use a ton of hot water during the day, we can have quite HOT water yet at 7:30 – 8:00 in the evening. It’s worked great for us. You should look into the program’s availability in your area.
about 1 year ago
If your water heater is less than 10 years old, you probably won’t see a big difference with a 24 hour timer. Turn the temp down to 120 (which is still hot enough to make most people flinch) will do more good.
Even better, get low-flow or even ultra-low-flow shower heads. Most shower heads are already low-flow (2.5GPM) but are easily defeated. Ultra-low-flow means 40% less water flow, and correspondingly less water to be heated. You can also get ultra-low-flow heads for all your faucets.
Something else to watch for: are you using hot water without knowing it? A lot of folks turn on the hot water to wash their hands, but never wait for the water to get hot. If you aren’t going to use the hot water, just use the cold water instead. Those small dosings of water being drawn from the tank can add up to a lot of wasted heat throughout the day.
When taking showers, how much hot water goes down the drain while you are soaping and shampooing? You can turn the water off until you need to rinse and easily save half the hot water of the typical shower — they even make showerheads that do this for you, so you don’t have to re-adjust the temp of the water.
about 1 year ago
It’s FAR cheaper to lower the temperature than to turn it off and on.
Most household uses of hot water require a temperature no warmer than 120° (”low” on your hot water heater’s dial). If your tank feels hot to the touch, you should add insulation. Try wrapping the heater with attic insulation or buy a blanket made for wrapping water heaters. You can also wrap the hot water pipes, if you can get to them. An added bonus to the extra money is an extra 4° F in the temperature of your water at the end of it’s journey to your faucet.