[permaculture-oceania] Electricity usage of electrichot waterheaters

[Peter McDonald]

Steve,

We have a 125 litre Dux system to serve our shed. Although we live here 
permanently now we used to switch the system off at the mains and only turn 
it on for 24 hours when we arrived, usually for two days, and then turn it 
off again. We found that the water stayed hot while were here and we also 
wanted to ensure we didn't overuse our water resources.

Switching on and off hasn't had any discernible adverse effects.

Cheers

Pete
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <steve_burns at wvi.org>
To: "permaculture-oceania" <permaculture-oceania at lists.cat.org.au>
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2006 4:26 AM
Subject: RE: [permaculture-oceania] Electricity usage of electrichot 
waterheaters


>I am interested in whether anyone else can  give personal experience of
> turning a system off for an extended period (days or weeks) without damage
> to the unit - I travel for weeks at a time and although I have turned the
> thermostat down, I've been reluctant to turn my (electric) unit off in 
> case
> that causes some damage.
>
> anyone able to comment? (especially plumbers!!)  ;)
>
> Steve
>
>
>
>             R Freeman
>             <sunnysidesourdou
>             gh at gmail.com>                                              To
>             Sent by:                  "'permaculture-oceania'"
>             permaculture-ocea         <permaculture-oceania at lists.cat.org
>             nia-bounces at lists         .au>
>             .cat.org.au                                                cc
>
>                                                                   Subject
>             06/07/2006 01:03          RE: [permaculture-oceania]
>             PM                        Electricity usage of electric hot
>                                       waterheaters
>
>             Please respond to
>             permaculture-ocea
>                    nia
>             <permaculture-oce
>             ania at lists.cat.or
>                   g.au>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Jedd has a hot water system
>>  ~200 litres, tall round metal canister, effectively
>> outdoors, ambient  day temps around 20C, night temps around
>> freezing, left unused  for 7-10 days at a time.
>
> And asks
>>  At what level of usage do these things warrant being left on?
>>  Or rather, at what frequency of *not* being used, does it
>> work  out better to turn them off?
>
>>From personal experience with a very similar setup (and with a family
> routine of showering in the evening and putting off doing the breakfast
> dishes until after lunch), I found that turning off the HWS at bedtime and
> turning it on again sometime the next morning saved significant dollars
> (therefore energy). I can't quite remember how much 'significant' was, but
> I
> do recall that it was worth getting up in the night to turn it off if I 
> had
> forgotten. Now, in a different rental house I have instant gas HWS. The
> house I build will have solar, boosted by a wood fire.
>
> In summary, these things don't warant being left on at all, except during
> the time that you are actually using it.
>
> Setting the thermostat a bit on the low side helps save too, but in that
> case more water from the HWS is used and too many people showreing in 
> quick
> succession means that the last person has to wait for the HWS to get hot
> again or get a cold shower.
>
> --Robert
>
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