When we had our house built over ten years ago, I had a wall switch
installed for the 50 gal water heater. The reason being that at
that time, we were pulling a 5'th wheel travel trailer around the
country and were often gone for a couple months at a time. Turning
off the water heater made sense; we also turned off the inline water
supple to the heater.

My question, and I don't know why I didn't think of it years ago,
is:
Would it be economical to turn off the heater at night and back on
in the mornings. One thought says, "yes", but the other is that it
would have to reheat the water equal to the overnight lost temp, and
wouldn't save anything.

Your thoughts please.
Bob-tx
PS: OT, but along the same lines. We also had the garage door
opener put on a wall switch so it could be turned off during periods
of absence. These switches are mounted about six feet high so they
are not confused for light switches.

"Bob" wrote in message
Would it be economical to turn off the heater at night and back on in the
mornings. One thought says, "yes", but the other is that it would have to
reheat the water equal to the overnight lost temp, and wouldn't save
anything.

You may save a tiny bit. Water heaters are better insulated than they were
years ago.

Next question, do you heat your house? If so, any loss from the water
heater will go toward heating your house during heating season. It would be
wasted the rest of the year.

If you decide to do this, you need a timer to turn it back on well before
you need the water in the morning as it will take time to recover.

On Nov 25, 7:04 am, "Edwin Pawlowski" wrote:
"Bob" wrote in message
Would it be economical to turn off the heater at night and back on in the
mornings. One thought says, "yes", but the other is that it would have to
reheat the water equal to the overnight lost temp, and wouldn't save
anything.

You may save a tiny bit. Water heaters are better insulated than they were
years ago.

Next question, do you heat your house? If so, any loss from the water
heater will go toward heating your house during heating season. It would be
wasted the rest of the year.

If you decide to do this, you need a timer to turn it back on well before
you need the water in the morning as it will take time to recover.

Your savings would be zilch when you take that long shower you would
burn it and more cut the temp and save more most people run the tank
to hot thinking it will recover faster not just cost more to run.