What with the escalating cost of electricity, it strikes me maybe I
can save some bucks by putting a timer on my hot water heater.
I could set it to heat HW only when needed (assuming Frau and I can
regulate our needs). Certainly it could be off, say, midnight to
wake-up. Maybe I am dreaming here?

I wonder:
(1) Do they make 220V timers? Are they expensive?
(2) Would I save enough to make it worthwhile? After all, there is
the cost of the timer as well as insulation to wrap to HWH itself.
(3) I would think it would consume more electricity to re-heat the
water each cycle as opposed to maintaining the heat, once hot. Am I
wrong?

Thanks

Geezer

"geezer" wrote in message
...
What with the escalating cost of electricity, it strikes me maybe I
can save some bucks by putting a timer on my hot water heater.
I could set it to heat HW only when needed (assuming Frau and I can
regulate our needs). Certainly it could be off, say, midnight to
wake-up. Maybe I am dreaming here?

I wonder:
(1) Do they make 220V timers? Are they expensive?
(2) Would I save enough to make it worthwhile? After all, there is
the cost of the timer as well as insulation to wrap to HWH itself.
(3) I would think it would consume more electricity to re-heat the
water each cycle as opposed to maintaining the heat, once hot. Am I
wrong?

They are around $ 40 at Lowes. Don't know if you will save much or not.

Most of the energy used by the water heater is to heat the water. To save
energy one needs to reduce hot water use. Low flow shower heads, only
running a full dishwasher, colder water selection on washing machine, etc.
Turning down hot water temperature may help. Not so easy in the winter when
incoming water is below 40. Thus if your hot water is 120, to take a shower
at say 105, something like 80% of the water is hot water. Even with low
flow (2.5 gal/min) shower heads a 20 minute shower will use close to a tank
of hot water. I have two long haired daughters, you know the story here,
they each would like to take a half an hour shower one after the other.
Trying to convince them 10 minutes is plenty of time isn't so easy. Keeping
the hot water temperature at 120, so they have be quicker does the trick
although I get an occasional scream of "Dad the shower's getting cold!"


"geezer" wrote in message
...
What with the escalating cost of electricity, it strikes me maybe I
can save some bucks by putting a timer on my hot water heater.
I could set it to heat HW only when needed (assuming Frau and I can
regulate our needs). Certainly it could be off, say, midnight to
wake-up. Maybe I am dreaming here?

I wonder:
(1) Do they make 220V timers? Are they expensive?
(2) Would I save enough to make it worthwhile? After all, there is
the cost of the timer as well as insulation to wrap to HWH itself.
(3) I would think it would consume more electricity to re-heat the
water each cycle as opposed to maintaining the heat, once hot. Am I
wrong?

Thanks

Geezer

"geezer" wrote in message
...
What with the escalating cost of electricity, it strikes me maybe I
can save some bucks by putting a timer on my hot water heater.
I could set it to heat HW only when needed (assuming Frau and I can
regulate our needs). Certainly it could be off, say, midnight to
wake-up. Maybe I am dreaming here?

I wonder:
(1) Do they make 220V timers? Are they expensive?
(2) Would I save enough to make it worthwhile? After all, there is
the cost of the timer as well as insulation to wrap to HWH itself.
(3) I would think it would consume more electricity to re-heat the
water each cycle as opposed to maintaining the heat, once hot. Am I
wrong?

Thanks

Geezer

You'd be better off by turning down the heater a bit and adding a insulation
jacket on it and the HW pipes (if the runs are long). I would think you'd
need HW every day.
John

This is just like turning back the thermostat in your house at night.
The amount of energy lost as the water cools slightly will have to be
put back again in the morning, when it is reheated, so that part is a
zero sum game. What you save is the heat loss through the tank being
slightly less at the lower average temp while the heater is off. If
the tank is well insulated, as it should be, then I doubt you will save
enough to make it worthwhile.

In some areas, power companies offer hot water heaters on seperate
meters that only provide power during off peak hours. The rate is
lower for the consumer and it helps reducte the power company peak load
during daytime. As suggested, I'd make sure the pipes are insulated,
hot water pipes as far as practical and the cold water pipe too for a
few feet from the water heater. You could also put a heat trap in the
hot water line, which is basicly an upside down U, close to the tank,
so that hot water will not convect through the pipe.

On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 17:29:25 GMT, "Jeff" wrote:

Most of the energy used by the water heater is to heat the water. To save
energy one needs to reduce hot water use. Low flow shower heads, only
running a full dishwasher, colder water selection on washing machine, etc.
Turning down hot water temperature may help. Not so easy in the winter when
incoming water is below 40. Thus if your hot water is 120, to take a shower
at say 105, something like 80% of the water is hot water. Even with low
flow (2.5 gal/min) shower heads a 20 minute shower will use close to a tank
of hot water. I have two long haired daughters, you know the story here,
they each would like to take a half an hour shower one after the other.
Trying to convince them 10 minutes is plenty of time isn't so easy. Keeping
the hot water temperature at 120, so they have be quicker does the trick
although I get an occasional scream of "Dad the shower's getting cold!"


"geezer" wrote in message
.. .
What with the escalating cost of electricity, it strikes me maybe I
can save some bucks by putting a timer on my hot water heater.
I could set it to heat HW only when needed (assuming Frau and I can
regulate our needs). Certainly it could be off, say, midnight to
wake-up. Maybe I am dreaming here?

I wonder:
(1) Do they make 220V timers? Are they expensive?
(2) Would I save enough to make it worthwhile? After all, there is
the cost of the timer as well as insulation to wrap to HWH itself.
(3) I would think it would consume more electricity to re-heat the
water each cycle as opposed to maintaining the heat, once hot. Am I
wrong?

Thanks

Geezer



Thanks for the responses.

Fortunately, my HWH is in a heated garage (more electricity!), so I
probably don't have much heat-loss in the HWH. I guess I could
consider off-ing the garage heat (50 degrees) and insulating the HWH.
The HW pipe emanating from the HWH is insulated (foam) already.
Frau loves super-hot showers, so my marriage could be in jeopardy.
Also, scheduling things, such as laundry, dish-washing, baths is out
of the question. I asked the question and got a negative frown.

Geezer

geezer wrote:

What with the escalating cost of electricity, it strikes me maybe I
can save some bucks by putting a timer on my hot water heater.
I could set it to heat HW only when needed (assuming Frau and I can
regulate our needs). Certainly it could be off, say, midnight to
wake-up. Maybe I am dreaming here?

Yes. If your water heater is insulated, it's likely the timer will use
more electrical energy than it saves.

Nick

wrote:
geezer wrote:


What with the escalating cost of electricity, it strikes me maybe I
can save some bucks by putting a timer on my hot water heater.
I could set it to heat HW only when needed (assuming Frau and I can
regulate our needs). Certainly it could be off, say, midnight to
wake-up. Maybe I am dreaming here?


Yes. If your water heater is insulated, it's likely the timer will use
more electrical energy than it saves.

Nick


Another thing to consider is that if your water heater is located where
heat leaking from it can help keep the house warm in the winter, you are
making some use of that little bit of lost heat.

Now, if you really want to get some energy back to help keep the place
warm during the winter, just keep the shower drain plugged while
showering and leave the water standing in it until it cools to room
temperature before letting it drain out. Same approach if you take baths
in the tub.

(That's not an idea I can take credit for, but it's suprising how many
otherwise clever folks never think about doing that.)

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 15:34:10 GMT, geezer wrote:

What with the escalating cost of electricity, it strikes me maybe I
can save some bucks by putting a timer on my hot water heater.

It won't help enough to matter. It probably won't help enough
to recover the cost of the timer.

I could set it to heat HW only when needed (assuming Frau and I can
regulate our needs). Certainly it could be off, say, midnight to
wake-up. Maybe I am dreaming here?