Electric water heater timer

[ScottSD]

cold in Georgia?

 

[theracedude]

cold in Georgia?

Keep in mind that i have lived in very South Florida for 44 years. Its colder in Georgia today than the beer in my fridge. I still have that thin blood in me.

 

[FarmerChick]

I am from the north originally and could endure cold.

Now being in NC....any cold kills me. Many times Atlanta sends us their storms and we get nailed...LOL...hey, thanks GA....OK?

I thought NC was in the south, I am truly thinking of moving more south....gotta follow the heat!

 

[SKR8PN]

Good job. I bet it would be a little more involved on a gas water heater. Do you think it would work? Probably need some kind of solenoid to cut the gas flow , but then there would be air pockets or something.

For those of you with a gas water heater.....looky at what they are working on!!

http://www.gaswaterheatertimer.com/

 

[SKR8PN]

do you know how many off/on programs the device you used has?

I didn't see your post until this evening, sorry about that! My timer only has two "on's" and two "off's" but they are just small clips that trip the breaker, so I don't see why you couldn't add a couple more to it..... I really don't think you would need any more, as long as you have a large enough capacity tank. Just my $.02 on the subject.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

And I'm sitting here just trying to figure out what an electric water heater is....don't laugh....ok go ahead and laugh....

then I thought about it and it was a OH DUH! moment....it's one of those things we're going to need to have hot water in once we get a well yea, I totally knew that......












just forgot..

 

[Big Daddy]

Good job. I bet it would be a little more involved on a gas water heater. Do you think it would work? Probably need some kind of solenoid to cut the gas flow , but then there would be air pockets or something.

For those of you with a gas water heater.....looky at what they are working on!!

http://www.gaswaterheatertimer.com/

Thanks. That's about exactly what I figured they would have to do. I didn't think of just reducing the gas height to a minimum during no usage times. I'm saving that one for when I get my finances back on track after x-mas.

 

[xpc]

I went without a hot water heater for almost 2 years but did install a new electric one last October, here is my test findings, recommendations, and why I did not use a timer for my install:

Keep heater off the floor on an insulated base:
especially on concrete floors, mine is mounted on an R13 insulated base plate.

Insulate heater with an approved blanket:
electric units should be insulated top to bottom, the blankets are about $15 and are R11 or better

Install heat traps and pipe insulation:
run hot exit pipe in a U fashion to stop heat from traveling up the pipe.

Note: my old water heater only had an insulation factor of R5, new units are around R15

Turning my newly installed heater on I allowed it to heat and stabilize at 91.5F for 24 hours, I then turned off the electricity for 24 hours and measured a heat loss of 10 degrees which required 2500 btus of power to reheat at a cost of about 8 cents. I repeated the same test after insulating the tank with an R13 blanket and only lost 1.5F over a 24 hour period needing only 375 btus to reheat at a cost of a little over a penny.

These are standby loses and include no usage in an ambient room of 60F, most new electric water heaters will be the same. The standard recovery for a 40 gallon heater is 20 gallons an hour when starting with 90F water, or about 50 cents @ 0.10kwh in electricity to reheat the tank back to 120F. If you live in an area that has peak costs then it is a good idea to use a timer.

Even though I have a water heater timer I chose not to install it after all my testing as it would not save me much and the timer could be put to better use elsewhere. This works fine in my situation as I only use 10 gallons a day, my solar heater easily makes that but has been put in storage for use at the new cabin.

Installing a solar heater is not as simple as putting up a panel, it needs valves, pumps, differential controllers, drain-back expansion tank, heat exchanger, and freeze protection.

 

[ScottSD]

Looks like you ran a pretty good scientific experiment

Thanks!

 

[SKR8PN]

Thanks XPC! You just gave me another idea.......
I am going to do the insulation like you suggested, run a temperature check, and see if I can get away with cutting the heater run time even shorter.

So far, we are pleased as punch with the results of adding this timer!