Electric water heater: OK to turn it off?

[thinkxingu]

Originally Posted by brk-lnt

Larger (30gal+) water heaters are usually 4000-5000W. Let's say 4500W on average. Your electric rate is based on Kilowatt hours, or using 1KW for 1 Hour. 4500 = 4.5Kw. Multiply your full electric rate by 4.5, and that's how much it costs to run your heater for an hour.

If that rate is 20 cents, then an hour of operation is 90 cents, for example. Of course it's not running the whole time, but if you can eliminate 2 hours of heater run time per day that can add up to $54.00/month, or less than $2/day.

Right, but now the calculation is how long to "catch up" to 120 degrees vs. what it would have cost to keep it there for that couple hours.

The same thing applies to heating/cooling homes: that sometimes it's cheaper to keep them at one temp rather than have to cool down/warm up a warmer/cooler house.

The calculations, of course, depend directly on how long the appliance would not be used, which is why maybe vacation mode—7 days off/the whole summer for Sailin—may actually work *if* bacteria's not an issue if warmed back up before use.

Sent from my SM-G990U1 using Tapatalk