And Pictures finally
The old tank in it's brilliant location
The point of failure. 7 years on a 9 year tank with the wrong connections...
Finished install and insulation. I just need to strap it to the wall to be earthquake ready. You can also see the wiring near the furnace ducts that runs the heatpump/electric furnace and powers the subpanel. Whoever installed them didn't believe in clipping them in place as they're just floating
on the furnace ducting... The original construction is good but of early 60's efficiency practices. The updates since then are shockingly half-assed.
The insulation is a full layer of R5 foil covered bubble wrap covered by R5 of fiberglass with a plastic back. Both of the kits are designed for 60 gallon tanks. The foil kit didn't include anything for the top of the tank and left the bottom 12" exposed... I had some extra foil bubble wrap so I made a top and covered the bottom. The fiberglass also left the bottom exposed. I'm not impressed with either kit.
Having said all that the heat trap and wrap must be better then what I started with. With the old hot water heater I was averaging 18 kwh/day when not using heat/AC. With the new 60 gallon tank I've been averaging 16 kwh/day. I wish I had a TED to monitor with and get some good numbers but my usage during the summer is pretty consistent. If I really am saving 2 kwh/day that works out to $75/year