Water Heater On or Off?

[Steveo]

Originally Posted by Lucky1

Water heater turned off when not there and pump turned off too. The circuit breaker box has room to pencil in the ones to turn off different areas.

Does anyone know how I find out where to turn off the hot water without such a marking? I have a handle to the house here that shuts off the water but do not see anything that tells me what circuit is the hot water heater in this house? How would I find that?

Two ways - first tanks usually make a low humming sound when heating (need to have your ear to it). Run your hot water until you hear heater turn on. Then cycle through your breakers until you hear it stop. Breakers could be single or double (120 vs 240) and more than likely be 30 amps. The second way is to carefully remove the plate that the power supply wire goes into your tank. Hook up simple power tester light (couple bucks at hardware store). Then cycle through breakers until light goes out.

Good luck

[Island Girl]

I looked at the link about all the math behind turning off the hot water heater. It looked like the assumption was that it was 60 degrees in the room in which the hot water heater was located. In my case, the heater is under the house, exposed to outside air temperatures. This week that can go down into the 30's. I would think the savings are much greater turning it off instead of the heater keeping the water at 120 degrees while we are not there.

IG

[Blue Thunder]

...for all of the posts. I knew someone on this forum would do the dirty work for me. Everyone's situation can be a bit different. In mine, it's not worth the effort to turn it off and not necessary either, so why bother?

BT

[SIKSUKR]

Originally Posted by Blue Thunder

... In mine, it's not worth the effort to turn it off and not necessary either, so why bother?
BT

I'm confused. Why did you ask the question? It's not worth the effort to flip a switch? Is the switch on the roof or something? With an electric wh not used all week you could save you $100 over a year. If still don't want to put the effort into flipping a switch then you could put a timer for around $30-40 and pay for that in one year.

[Blue Thunder]

Originally Posted by SIKSUKR

I'm confused. Why did you ask the question? It's not worth the effort to flip a switch? Is the switch on the roof or something? With an electric wh not used all week you could save you $100 over a year. If still don't want to put the effort into flipping a switch then you could put a timer for around $30-40 and pay for that in one year.

Easy there Sik. My point is that if the savings between on or off is only 24 cents on an 80 gallon electric unit over the 8.5 day example given then my 40 gallon unit is probably something less than that. For the 20 or so weeks that I would consider turning it off, I would save a total of $4.80 for the year. THAT is why I asked the question.

BT

[Rattlesnake Guy]

We added this device to our breaker panel to indicate when the tank is heating. That way you can wait till the light is out to maximize your hot shower experience after your teen takes one. The LED runs off the sensed current by running the ac leg through the ring.

http://www.crmagnetics.com/products/...tPDFs/2550.pdf

[jmen24]

Originally Posted by Island Girl

I looked at the link about all the math behind turning off the hot water heater. It looked like the assumption was that it was 60 degrees in the room in which the hot water heater was located. In my case, the heater is under the house, exposed to outside air temperatures. This week that can go down into the 30's. I would think the savings are much greater turning it off instead of the heater keeping the water at 120 degrees while we are not there.

IG

IG, I would agree. The math also takes into account the insulation value of the tank itself. These are all things that will raise or lower how much you could save.

Although you cannot use just any old insulation laying around, they do have fiberglass insulation products that you could wrap the existing tank with. That would increase the R-value of the appliance. The product has a grey vapor barrier attached that feels more like a plastic material than the tradition paper backed fiberglass batt insulation.

Doing this will help keep the water in the tank, hotter, longer when it is running.

[Mee-n-Mac]

Originally Posted by Lucky1

Water heater turned off when not there and pump turned off too. The circuit breaker box has room to pencil in the ones to turn off different areas.

Does anyone know how I find out where to turn off the hot water without such a marking? I have a handle to the house here that shuts off the water but do not see anything that tells me what circuit is the hot water heater in this house? How would I find that?

Originally Posted by Steveo

Two ways - first tanks usually make a low humming sound when heating (need to have your ear to it). Run your hot water until you hear heater turn on. Then cycle through your breakers until you hear it stop. Breakers could be single or double (120 vs 240) and more than likely be 30 amps. The second way is to carefully remove the plate that the power supply wire goes into your tank. Hook up simple power tester light (couple bucks at hardware store). Then cycle through breakers until light goes out.

Good luck

Rather than opening up the panel on your heater to get at the connections, go to Sears (or perhaps your local hardware store or Lowes or Home Depot or ?) and get an AC voltage detector for about $15. These devices detect the presence of the AC line voltage without having to make physical or electrical contact and beep/buzz to alert you. Hold the tip one near the heaters input AC line and hear it beep. Turn off the breakers one by one, checking between each switching to see if the alert remains or not. When you don't hear the alert, the last breaker opened was/is the heater breaker. Turn that breaker back on and make sure the detector beeps again. You've found your breaker, label it. It'll usually be a dual breaker BTW.


Link to Sears Tester

[Lucky1]

Many thanks Steveo and Mee- n- Mac. Will do my best to find the right circuit breaker. Personally do not like having to keep the hot water tank heated when not here.

Here is a shocker...........the lake house has a 1979 hot water tank!! Am afraid to change it since we have had several hot water tanks replaced at other locations! One is a condo though so for the building it would not be fair to have a tank go. In the cottage there is just a cement floor in the utility room with a turned off water pump so there would be water I guess but hopefully not cause a lot of problems if it went when no one was there.