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Old 09-05-10, 09:59 AM   #10
Xringer
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Location: Woburn, MA
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I was just thinking about the advantages of using a timer with an electric water heater.
If you know the KW used and your timer setting, you can calculate the absolute maximum cost to heat your water.
It might be less, on days when the timer comes on and the water is already pretty warm.
It allows you to plan-control your max cost a little better.


Oil makes my case is a little different. But using the 1/2 gallon-per-hour oil burner set up,
I can see that a 200 gallon fill up will last about 400 days, burning 1/2 hour a day.
1/2 hour a day is my current setting, and it seems to be working pretty well so far.

If the Sanyo keeps working this winter, we might be able to stay with this 1/2 hour setting for 95% of the cold weather.

If the Sanyo fails again, the timer program segments will have to be radically changed..

Hey, the sun coming in the window just reminded me of the PV array.
It's contributing about 1400 BTU to my hot-water right now.
And it's free! A happy side effect of my tinkering hobby!
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