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Old 09-05-10, 10:07 PM   #15
NiHaoMike
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick View Post
Thanks for the suggestion. Here is my dilemma. My tank is 50 gallons. My wife likes to take Jacuzzi baths in HOT water and the tub takes about 50 gallons to fill to a reasonable level.

My understanding of how the water heater works is that it runs on the lower element most of the time which heats the entire volume of the tank. But if you put a great demand on it by using a lot of water quickly, it kicks on the upper element to get "quick recovery" so that you're not getting excessively cold water in your shower/tub, etc.

So if I change it so that only the upper element runs, will my wife run out of hot water for her baths?
Sounds like the perfect application for a heat pump or thermal solar collector.

You can try turning down the bottom element temperature until it's completely off or until the water just starts getting too cool.
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