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Installing a Mechanical or Digital Timer on Hot Water Tank?

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  • Mar 12th, 2018 4:40 pm
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Faith24 wrote: 20 x 50w potlights in one room? Face Screaming In Fear

I doubt there would be "many" with that arrangement!
I've seen it in large livingroom/kitchen areas. I find GU10 potlights pretty poor at lighting areas.

The many referred to rooms with 10 to 20 lights. 10 is pretty common. Maybe I should have said 10+ lights.
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Paris
engineered wrote: I've seen it in large livingroom/kitchen areas. I find GU10 potlights pretty poor at lighting areas.

The many referred to rooms with 10 to 20 lights. 10 is pretty common. Maybe I should have said 10+ lights.
I think your 20% for LED bulbs is off as well. In any case, a timer on a water heater is of questionable value, and then you could get Legionnaires which would cost you significantly more in downtime from your job that any timer would help with.
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Jerico wrote: I think your 20% for LED bulbs is off as well. In any case, a timer on a water heater is of questionable value, and then you could get Legionnaires which would cost you significantly more in downtime from your job that any timer would help with.
I think that was someone else who mentioned LEDs using only 20% the energy. Really the usage current bulbs appears to vary from 14% to 30% the energy usage.
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So this is my setup:
  • I heat my water to 160*F. This completely kills any possibility of legionnaires bacteria and also addresses an issue I have with sulphur bacteria (I have a well).
  • Heating it to 160*F also gives me the maximum amount of hot water from the tank (less 160*F water required for the same hot shower).
  • I worked out the cost of going from 140* to 160* using the R-value of the HW tank insulation and the surface area and the higher temperature differential and it worked out to about $10/year. IMHO water tank blankets are not much benefit.
  • My house is a relatively new build so it has an anti-scald mixing valve to eliminate scalding issues that would otherwise be a concern.
  • I have this HW Timer set up to only heat from 7pm to 7am so it always uses off-peak rates. Without this most of my HW heating would be at peak and mid-peak rates after morning showers. If I recall correctly this will pay for the unit within a year (I installed it myself and it only took a few more feet of the appropriate wire)
  • We can get 3 morning showers no problem with this setup. For those days when we need more we just push the button on the front of the timer and it starts heating immediately (but would take some time to have the hot water you want).

About the only times we have run short of hot water was when someone wanted an early evening bath, so on the few times someone plans to do that, they have to make sure the hit the button a while before.

I would recommend this to anyone who has an electric hot water heater.

So to answer Op's question I went with a digital timer so I could have different settings on the weekend when all hydro is off-peak. So Sunday through Friday it operates 7pm to 7am. Then it operates from Friday 7pm to Sunday 7pm (then stays on Sunday 7pm to Monday 7am from other programming)
Last edited by JWL on Nov 7th, 2017 2:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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JWL wrote: So this is my setup:
  • I heat my water to 160*F. This completely kills any possibility of legionnaires bacteria and also addresses an issue I have with sulphur bacteria (I have a well).
  • Heating it to 160*F also gives me the maximum amount of hot water from the tank (less 160*F water required for the same hot shower).
  • I worked out the cost of going from 140* to 160* using the R-value of the HW tank insulation and the surface area and the higher temperature differential and it worked out to about $10/year. IMHO water tank blankets are not much benefit.
  • My house is a relatively new build so it has an anti-scald mixing valve to eliminate scalding issues that would otherwise be a concern.
  • I have this HW Timer set up to only heat from 7pm to 7am so it always uses off-peak rates. Without this most of my HW heating would be at peak and mid-peak rates after morning showers. If I recall correctly this will pay for the unit within a year (I installed it myself and it only took a few more feet of the appropriate wire)
  • We can get 3 morning showers no problem with this setup. For those days when we need more we just push the button on the front of the timer and it starts heating immediately (but would take some time to have the hot water you want).

About the only times we have run short of hot water was when someone wanted an early evening bath, so on the few times someone plans to do that, they have to make sure the hit the button a while before.

I would recommend this to anyone who has an electric hot water heater.
That's cool. Essentially using it as a thermal battery.

More advanced/compact thermal batteries use phase change materials to store even more energy.
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JWL wrote: So this is my setup:
  • I heat my water to 160*F. This completely kills any possibility of legionnaires bacteria and also addresses an issue I have with sulphur bacteria (I have a well).
  • Heating it to 160*F also gives me the maximum amount of hot water from the tank (less 160*F water required for the same hot shower).
  • I worked out the cost of going from 140* to 160* using the R-value of the HW tank insulation and the surface area and the higher temperature differential and it worked out to about $10/year. IMHO water tank blankets are not much benefit.
  • My house is a relatively new build so it has an anti-scald mixing valve to eliminate scalding issues that would otherwise be a concern.
  • I have this HW Timer set up to only heat from 7pm to 7am so it always uses off-peak rates. Without this most of my HW heating would be at peak and mid-peak rates after morning showers. If I recall correctly this will pay for the unit within a year (I installed it myself and it only took a few more feet of the appropriate wire)
  • We can get 3 morning showers no problem with this setup. For those days when we need more we just push the button on the front of the timer and it starts heating immediately (but would take some time to have the hot water you want).

About the only times we have run short of hot water was when someone wanted an early evening bath, so on the few times someone plans to do that, they have to make sure the hit the button a while before.

I would recommend this to anyone who has an electric hot water heater.

So to answer Op's question I went with a digital timer so I could have different settings on the weekend when all hydro is off-peak. So Sunday through Friday it operates 7pm to 7am. Then it operates from Friday 7pm to Sunday 7pm (then stays on Sunday 7pm to Monday 7am from other programming)
JWL

Thank you for your posting. Your information is exactly what I was looking for. You are doing what I want to do.

Many replies did not take in account the tiered cost times of electricity that make the timer useful.
High peak time is almost double the cost of the low time.

Also the information of the timer you bought also helped.
Another reason for purchasing digital over analog is that it may be quieter.

I just purchased today from Amazon.ca.
Soon no more tripping the breakers twice a day.
Thanks again for your comprehensive post.

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