On 29-Mar-2004, (m Ransley) wrote:

But who doesn't use their water heater.

There is no argument about that. My analysis was simply to answer the question
of how much power is consumed by an idle electric water heater. That
information is useful when evaluating the potential savings from insulating
blankets, timers and tankless heaters because it puts an upper limit on how
much potential savings you could gain by any means other than using less water
or changing the source of energy. The idle cost is the cost of energy lost
through the shell of the tank.

I went from 30 $ at 0.12kwh a month electric bill for electric water
heater 1 person to 5 a month gas bill by putting in a gas tankless Its
paid for itself in 2 years.

OK, here's a good application for the data I collected: As I understand your
message, you pay $0.12/KWH. That being the case, the cost of storing the hot
water (ignoring usage) is about $6.00 per month. Switching to a tankless
electric water heater would save most -- but not all -- of this cost -- let's
say $5.00/month. So the annual savings would be $60/year and you would save
$120 over two years. If you are saving more than that, the difference is due
to the lower cost of heating with gas rather than the advantages of a tankless
heater.