please help me with my electric hot water heater!

[scrava]

Hi all!

I haven't been around much in the past year or so...
but, I'm now a SAHM of my b/g twins who are 15 months old (almost).

We really paired down the budget back in April when I started SAHM'ing. But, recently our electric bills have been out of control. The electric co. sent someone out yesterday who changed my meter. We knew the $80-100 increase (so bills are $200+) was probably not the meter's fault but we wanted it changed just in case.

The nice man rang our bell and showed me how fast the old meter was spinning. He couldn't believe it! My H works later in the day so he came out, too. He asked us what we had on and had us shut everything off 1 by 1 to find the culprit and it was the hot water heater. Not a surprise but still we have to do something as my budgeted amount of electric is $130 not $220!

Starting today, we are going to shut off the hot water heater after showers and baths. I shut it off at 11:30 this am. I just checked the new meter (digital) and it was hardly spinning, TG!!

So, those of you who shut your water heater off with a switch or timer, how long do you leave it on per day? do you just wash your hands in cold water the rest of the day? Any other advice?

we have 2 adults taking 1 shower each per day and 2 babies getting bathed in the tub every other day. we have a 1200 sq ft cape and my ideal electric bill would be $110 but it is usually $130 until about November when it hit $200+.

-Thank You

[krantcents]

Hi all!

I haven't been around much in the past year or so...
but, I'm now a SAHM of my b/g twins who are 15 months old (almost).

We really paired down the budget back in April when I started SAHM'ing. But, recently our electric bills have been out of control. The electric co. sent someone out yesterday who changed my meter. We knew the $80-100 increase (so bills are $200+) was probably not the meter's fault but we wanted it changed just in case.

The nice man rang our bell and showed me how fast the old meter was spinning. He couldn't believe it! My H works later in the day so he came out, too. He asked us what we had on and had us shut everything off 1 by 1 to find the culprit and it was the hot water heater. Not a surprise but still we have to do something as my budgeted amount of electric is $130 not $220!

Starting today, we are going to shut off the hot water heater after showers and baths. I shut it off at 11:30 this am. I just checked the new meter (digital) and it was hardly spinning, TG!!

So, those of you who shut your water heater off with a switch or timer, how long do you leave it on per day? do you just wash your hands in cold water the rest of the day? Any other advice?

we have 2 adults taking 1 shower each per day and 2 babies getting bathed in the tub every other day. we have a 1200 sq ft cape and my ideal electric bill would be $110 but it is usually $130 until about November when it hit $200+.

-Thank You

Can you have it changed out? What are your alternatives? You could go with an on-demand hot water heater. They are expensive, bit in your case it may be beneficial. Good luck

[scrava]

I actually don't have much for out of pocket $. We don't have gas at our house. We could pay to tie-in but when we replaced our oil burned 5 years ago it was $$$ to switch to gas b/c we'd have to pay for the pipe from the street.

[cptacek]

I did this when I lived alone. I would turn it on when I got home from work and turn it back off after I took a shower at night. During the summer, the water stayed pretty warm, warm enough that I could leave it on "vacation" setting all summer, but in the winter I had to turn it up when I got home and then turn it back down after I took a shower. I didn't have an insulating blanket, though, which may have helped.

If you have an electric one, could you have a switch installed to make it a lot easier to turn on and off? It usually took mine about 20 minutes to fully warm up in the winter, and I could plan ahead...but I was living alone. Don't know how it would work with babies.

Better to have it on for a few hours a day, intermittently, than having it spinning that electricity the whole day!

[Money Gal]

It sounds like the area the heater is in is not well insulated OR you have an old not so well insulated tank, so it is running extra to compensate for external cooling. If your water heater is over 10 years old you should get a new one installed soon. If it's in a garage & an older model it might benefit from a tank wrap.

There are electronic timers that you can get & that is what I would suggest. You will need to figure out what time blocks showers, dishwashing, laundry etc will take place and schedule around that. The water in the tank doesn't cool down immediately, so you will still have hot water for washing hands etc while it is not heating.

In Europe I saw small in line heating units that would be set up for a specific bathroom for example. I have not seen this in the US (have only seen whole house ones) but maybe they are out there. This would let you have the main water tank off most of the time if you could set one bathroom & kitchen with the in line heating systems.