[permaculture-oceania] Electricity usage of electric hotwaterheaters

[Mike Morris]

(Apologies for double-quoting - I missed the original post)

On 10/06/06, R Freeman <wordgarden at iinet.net.au> wrote:

> >  Thanks for the info, Robert.  How long have you been doing
> > this,  as I'm curious if there's long-term effects on the
> > longevity of the  system if it's cycled regularly.
>
> I did it for about 2 years. During that time the system worked fine, and I
> believe it is still working fine now 5 years later. I confess I never really
> thought about whether it would shorten the life of the system (but probably
> wouldn't have stopped me even if I had thought about it.)

Should have absolutely no effect, since hot-water systems work by
switching the element on and off anyway.  If anything it might
conceivable /prolong/ the life of the system since the thermostat
(which switches the heating element on/off) would be subjected to
fewer expansion/contraction cycles per unit-time, so would live
longer.

-- 
mike morris :: mike.morris (at) cocosoft . co . za