[Donna]

For the hive mind: I live alone in a two bedroom, two bath apartment. I’ve learned after being off three full days, the hot water is still lukewarm. It takes less than one and a half hours to heat back up.

I got distracted and that’s how long before I remembered to check.

My thoughts are to turn it on in the morning then back off about noon every other day.

Will there be any energy savings?

Thanks

[Anna]

It will give you savings as normally it will go on and off by itself to keep
The water at a certain temp
This way, you use less energy

I did this years ago and there was a differve
Water heaters usually run about $30 a month

Check your electric bill in a month ( except if the temps outside are lower than normal)

At some point when I was really poor and the water heater broke, I did a whole summer of 2gallon water baths

Fill a gallon partially with hot then the rest with cold water
Part of 1 gallon to get you wet

The rest to rinse you off
It get chilly when you don’t have warm water constantly running

[Jean]

The most economical ones for small households are the instantaneous ones, I have heard.

[Cindy]

I have a timer on mine now, and I have it set to run for 2 hours in the morning and 3 hours each afternoon.

Before my timer, I would just flip the breaker about 20 minutes before a shower or washing dishes, then off about 20 minutes after.

It helps!

[Laura]

Picturing driving down the road at a steady speed of say, 55 mph. Light pressure on the gas is needed, sometimes you can remove the pressure and let the car’s momentum carry the car.

Now picture driving up a steep hill. Your car needs you to increase pressure on the gas pedal to allow more gas to get to the engine so it can do it’s thing and propel the car forward.

That is your water heater.

So no, turning off your water heater actually makes it work harder to provide you hot water on demand when you want it.

You can however, insulate your water heater and the pipes leading from it to keep it from loosing some of it’s heat.

[Deborah]

Rather than turning it off, turn the temperature down to about 120.

[Margie]

I tried to remember to turn it off each morning as I left for work and on again as soon as I get up to make coffee.

A timer would work better for me.

[Wendy]

This savings is so small and reheating a whole tank of water will be more costly than the savings while it is shut off.

[Judy]

I believe it will use more energy heating the water back up if you turn it off, than it might if you leave it on all the time.

[Suzanne]

Have you checked the prices of a new water heater? Sounds like it might pay for itself quickly

[Jill]

A friend of ours used to turn their hot water tank off…I think they had it off at night, then turn it back on in the morning…

but I think they turned it back off after their morning routine.

[Author]

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