My Intermatic WH40 install... (electric hot water heater timer)
 

So I installed the heater timer shortly after installing it. I had the luck of having the PO install a pullout power switch after the breaker.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k7...ps3acf72bf.jpg

So I ripped it off the stud. Matched the width PERFECTLY! the height was a little off, so I took out my trusty leatherman and made the necessary adjustment to the wall. I reused the screws that held the original box to hold the new box.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k7...ps97ac562f.jpg

Having the original box, I had the code worthy romex connectors into the box to reuse. Everything tightened in perfectly. I trimmed and stripped the leads and made all the connections.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k7...psc462de10.jpg

Now its installed! I found my caulking gun and gave it a once around (as well as adding a little to a loose outlet box that has since been sealed!)

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k7...ps42317d01.jpg

Success!
So I do understand that $55 has a high ROI, but after spending all Saturday piecing together a homebrew solution, I decided on this one because its readily available, meets code (I assume), and it has a pretty screenprinted box that would make the next homeowner think "Hey, that looks nice".

Initial impressions: It make a weird noise that is normal I believe. The off makes a bright spark which is prolly also normal. I have this thing set for 7-8 am and thats all. Clothes are washed cold and the dishwasher has its own heater so thats handled. I'll keep in touch as to whether I like it months, years down the road...
Feel free to ask any questions.

That looks just like my pool timer I installed over the summer. You only run it for one hour a day?
Is just you at the house?

The weird noise is the little motor inside turning the stack of gears that turn the dial. Intermatic mechanical timers have always made that funny noise. They get louder as they get older. When it stops making noise, you know you need a new timer motor.

My next WH timer will use a harbor freight digital timer, and a 40A double throw contactor with a 120V coil. (my current WH timer uses an intermatic 120V digital timer which requires a AAA battery which switches current to drive that same 120V contactor). Listening to my WH operate recently, I find it actually runs less than 2 hours most days (within the 4.5 hour window I give it).

Its myself and SWMBO, so I will prolly add another hour later on, but at the moment if she takes a shower, it'll be shortly after the heater comes on so she SHOULD be ok, I'm sure I'll hear about it if its not working for her.

Nice install, that looks liked it worked out great haha. :thumbup:

I forget, did you say you already added insulation to your water heater?

I bought the R10 wrap this weekend. I'm going to do that tonite. Then send off a copy of the receipt for the electric co rebate!
She wanted me to install the toe molding, but I figure i'd start with the money saving then do looks ;-)

Is it less expensive to have the dish washer heat the water?

I am not sure, but my thoughts are the washers gonna heat with electric to whatever temp it needs anyway, so I figure its 6 of one, 7 of another. Plus I wouldn't have heat loss through the pipes.

If it's a standard electric water heater, that's always true. If it's gas or heat pump, it depends on whether the reduced operating cost is enough to offset the extra losses from a higher setpoint.

Ahh, gotcha. Same fuel is same cost.

So SHE decided to take a hiflo shower that lasted 20 before I got home from work. After that, I wrapped the water heater and installed the loflo Niagara head. The hot water didn't stand a chance. Lesson learned. I'm adding another hour or heating aroumd when I get home from work.

My run to the dishwasher is not particularly long but it still takes a good half gallon before it starts to get warm water to the tap or to the dishwasher. I used to run the hot water until it got hot and then power up the dishwasher but I stopped doing that and let the dishwasher heat the water. My dishwasher is a mid 2000's energy star model and I've clocked it using 6 gallons of water during the whole wash cycle. It doesn't heat the 10 minute "pre-wash" cycle or the rinse cycle but the main wash cycle, the one that lasts for over an hour(maybe even almost 2) heats the water.

If I use the light cycle on my dishwasher it won't heat the water at all. I preferred this setting in the summer but in prior years my winter house temperature is far too cold to heat up the dishes and the air in the dishwasher using that cycle, I literally put my hand in there and the water was barely over lukewarm.

I don't heat my hot water tank hotter than I need to for a comfortable shower and getting sick is far more expensive than heating a single digit number of gallons of water to a slightly higher temperature so I let the dishwasher do the job with whatever its internal thermostat is set to. It uses less than 2kwh including the water heating and the pumping with a normal wash cycle with water heating on and heated dry. If the difference is a single kwh, I think its worth it.

Nice install, good photos & write up. A good way to minimize standing heat loss.

But, I add this digression as an option...

I put in a tankless gas demand water heater about 15 years ago and it has proven itself to be very reliable & inexpensive.

Modern storage DWH have gotten much better since I got my tankless. But I have come to understand that frequency of use can shift the comparative cost-of-ownership one way or the other.

For me, living solo, my flash heater can't be beat, as the usage pattern is dominated by long periods of inactivity, when the tankless uses and loses no energy. The fact that tankless supplies unlimited hot water is no advantage to me.

When I was a family guy, and hot water demand was frequent and relentless, the economics would have made demand heating more difficult to justify, leaving limitless hot water supply the only advantage.

-AC

So six months (almost to the day) later...
The bad: We did have an "off" switcher come undone and slide around making it stay on all day.
The good:"I like it, I mean I can't take a superlong shower..."- the lady. That is what I like to hear.
I haven't analyzed the power bill either to know the savings as other changed have been made and we don't have a years worth of baseline.

Almost 4 years to the day and things have been great. Aside from a couple switchers falling off the clock, it's worked good. Except for last week... The rotating clock piece "locked" up and I started looking for replacements. Then I grabbed the face and I couldn't adjust it. I then twisted it to free it and then it's worked ever since.
One of these days I want to drill holes where my settings are so the switchers have a more solid placement.