[Greenbuilding] No Fracking Way?

[Nick Pyner]

This all looks pretty good and, clearly you will always be in front with minimal use and well-timed manual switch control, if only because the element works best when the water is coldest. the most common reason for using timers is that approximately 99.99% of consumers prefer it that way.

Another reason is that automated temperature control minimises health risks. You don't talk about your operating water temperature. If you are heating the water only once a week it may be OK for a shower at say 40 degrees, but water tanks are usually set at a minimum of 60 to kill off any legionnaires bacteria. Your typical shower temperature is the ideal growth temperature for legionnaires, and it is often illegal to install heater with the thermostat set below 60.

What you don't talk about is your tariff programme either. Maybe you don't have one and the power costs the same 24/7. But, if you do, you are likely to save a lot more by coordinating your switching with it. This may mean curling up beside thne HWS with a good book and waiting for the magic hour.

 
Nick Pyner

Dee Why   NSW 

  -----Original Message-----
  From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.]On Behalf Of Bob Waldrop

    

  We put in an off the shelf mid-price electric water heater, and added an on off switch, so most of the time it is off and we turn it on maybe twice a week.  People periodically tell me that that doesn’t save any energy, for various reasons, and while it is true that I am not a scientist. . . as an experiment we left it on 24/7 a couple of months in the fall when it wasn’t especially hot or cold and our bill went up over a hundred dollars each month (more than a thousand kilowatt hours) so I would say that the simple on off switch does in fact save energy. Not to mention giving my poor frugal heart pains when I opened the bill. The plan when we get more money is to add a solar water heater.



  Bob Waldrop, Oklahoma City


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