Will turning off a home hot water heater each night reduce energy use or increase it?

Answer 1

Most likely increase, but if you did save, the savings would be lost in buying new 220 breakers (every time they are turned on and off they are weaked until eventually they will not hold any more).

Answer 2

It would decrease it, but not by too much. It would NOT increase it. As an example, consider what would happen if you turned it off for a week. Instead of the heater going on, over and over again, to keep the water hot...it didn't go on at all. Of course that takes less energy. Ok...then you come back and turn it on. It takes quite a lot of energy for a short time to bring it back to temp, but that is not nearly as much as it would have taken if it had been left on all week.
You get exactly the same effect by turning it off at night, just not as much.
"Standby losses" are what cost money while a heater tries to maintain a temperature all the time. The reason it has to add energy, even when nobody is using hot water, is because it constantly is losing heat. The bigger the temperature difference between the hot water and the air around the tank, the faster it loses heat. That is why turning the temp down has a big effect on the energy use. The higher the temp, the faster it loses heat...and the faster it loses it, the more often it has to turn on to heat it back up.
The timers are good, but also, insulating the tank with a blanket of fiberglass and the hot water pipe for at least the first 6 feet will help a lot.

The notion that it "takes more energy to heat it up" is absolutely wrong, although it's a real popular idea.
But it's contrary to the laws of physics, and all the popular opinion in the world won't change the laws of physics!

Answer 3

Any savings from turning the water heater off at night would be minimal. Unless your water heater is several years old, the insulation holds the heat fairly well. The heating elements probably don't come on much during the night when there is no use.

Howerer, it would save money when you are away from the house for a few days or more. If you take a vacation, there is no point in heating the water.

Answer 4

Have you got an electric water heater? If this is the case, you could install a timer with a thermostat. Another thing you can do is to install an insulated blanket on the exterior of the heater. This works for electric or gas models. The only precaution to take on the electric model , don't cover the removable panels where your elements are located. On gas models, the newest tanks have an encapsulated burn chamber at the bottom of the tank, and there are vent holes for combustion air to be drawn into the heater. These must be left open, or your pilot light will burn up any air, and then it will extinguish itself, from lack of oxygen.

Answer 5

I doubt very much if you could tell one way or the other. If your water heater is in a location where it pretty much stays the temperature of the house, it is unlikely that the temperature in the tank would drop all that much. Water heaters by their very nature are insulated to such a degree that they retain much of the heat.

I know this to be a fact, because my gas was off for one day because the city's line broke. Granted it was summertime, but when the gas came back on, and I relit the water heater, I turned water on just to see, and lo and behold, it was still hot.

So, knowing this from experience, my guess is that it would probably be more aggravation that it's worth.

Answer 6

The only completely safe approach would be to shut off both the water supply AND heat source to the heater, then refilling and restarting to use. Meantime, this already bad leak will get worse to where it could totally fail and wet the area with the contents of the tank - or flood it if the water supply is on. So if there's anything on the floor in that area, get it out of there. Big exception would be a nearby furnace, which is not worth the risk.

Answer 7

a hot water heater will run 13 out of 24 hrs but when turned off it will stay hot enough for 2 days to take a shower. I save about 30 dollars a month on my bill

Answer 8

If it's electric and in a cool area like the basement, you could save a few dollars. They actually make a timer for this called The Little Grey Box. But you can use any appropriate timer or switch. Check at any electrical supply.
You can also save energy but wrapping the heater in any type of foil-bubble pack insulation. So much more convenient than the fiberglass wraps. www.insulation4less.com or www.reflectix.com

Answer 9

Increase It. Why Pay Twice To Heat The Same Water?

Answer 10

It will increase it most likely. It costs more to warm up a whole tank then to maintain the warm. If you like the idea of saving absolutely the most, get an "on demand water heater". Those are small tankless units that only warm the water as it passes through the device.