So ~5 months back I purchased a "smart" water heater controller called Aquanta - it was one of many different efforts to save some energy to make my life a little more carbon neutral. Our lifestyle is such that outside of morning showers and the dishwasher going 2-3x per week we don't really use hot water for much else, so maybe two hours per day of hot water demand if that. Looked at basic timers but that was a hard pass due to having to mount remotely and run additional wiring and tankless is not an option either as my existing panel does not have the capacity.
So overall I would say it has been a great upgrade and something to be considered if you are looking to add a timer to you water heater. It does not require remote mounting or additional wiring as on electric version it just mounts to the top of the water heater where the conduit enters. Installation is relatively easy, if you can replace an outlet or switch you can install this.
Pros:
- Does save some energy with little intervention. I didn't get a good baseline to compare as I didn't have any way to measure usage prior to installation. For reference the 53.2 KWH for April was only for 4/12-4/30 while the controller was still learning my habits. Calculating that out my usage was probably closer to 90 KWH per month pre-controller. I pay ~.15 per KWH so lets say I am saving about $4.50/month - its going to take ~3 years to pay off the $149 cost of entry.
- Away mode. When on vaca you can easily switch to away mode which is basically like turning the water heater off. No flipping breakers off, adjusting a timer or pulling trigger pins off a timer.
- Easy override. Have not had to use this yet but there is a "boost" mode that temporarily overrides everything for a time you set and just allows the water heater to go to 100% on mode. Figure times when you have family in town and lots of showers are happening, lots of dishes being washed, etc.
- Time of use setting. I am on a night and weekends plan with GA Power and Aquanta has most utility TOU plans programmed into their interface that seems to not allow the heater to run during peak periods, at least I think that is how it is going (see con below).
Cons:
- The interface could be a bit more powerful in amount of user control and seeing what is going on. As it currently stands you cannot see what the controller has learned of your habits and when it has scheduled the water heater to run. It doesn't even show you whether its allowing the heater to run or if it is in standby.
- No smart home integration. This is a huge miss as I would very much like Google Home to be able to put it into away mode when I am leaving.
Overall:
- Despite the cons I still am happy with the controller, it was a better option than a regular digital or analog timer in my application. It does have basic timer modes as well which I may give a whirl in a few months to see if it would be more savings versus the intelligence mode.
**Note on hot water temp below - this is a remote probe sensor that zip ties externally to the hot water outlet. Even at factory 120 degree setting the most I see is 116 degrees on the app. The 110 below is due to controller being in standby (I think) - lowest I have seen was 105/106 or thereabouts.
So overall I would say it has been a great upgrade and something to be considered if you are looking to add a timer to you water heater. It does not require remote mounting or additional wiring as on electric version it just mounts to the top of the water heater where the conduit enters. Installation is relatively easy, if you can replace an outlet or switch you can install this.
Pros:
- Does save some energy with little intervention. I didn't get a good baseline to compare as I didn't have any way to measure usage prior to installation. For reference the 53.2 KWH for April was only for 4/12-4/30 while the controller was still learning my habits. Calculating that out my usage was probably closer to 90 KWH per month pre-controller. I pay ~.15 per KWH so lets say I am saving about $4.50/month - its going to take ~3 years to pay off the $149 cost of entry.
- Away mode. When on vaca you can easily switch to away mode which is basically like turning the water heater off. No flipping breakers off, adjusting a timer or pulling trigger pins off a timer.
- Easy override. Have not had to use this yet but there is a "boost" mode that temporarily overrides everything for a time you set and just allows the water heater to go to 100% on mode. Figure times when you have family in town and lots of showers are happening, lots of dishes being washed, etc.
- Time of use setting. I am on a night and weekends plan with GA Power and Aquanta has most utility TOU plans programmed into their interface that seems to not allow the heater to run during peak periods, at least I think that is how it is going (see con below).
Cons:
- The interface could be a bit more powerful in amount of user control and seeing what is going on. As it currently stands you cannot see what the controller has learned of your habits and when it has scheduled the water heater to run. It doesn't even show you whether its allowing the heater to run or if it is in standby.
- No smart home integration. This is a huge miss as I would very much like Google Home to be able to put it into away mode when I am leaving.
Overall:
- Despite the cons I still am happy with the controller, it was a better option than a regular digital or analog timer in my application. It does have basic timer modes as well which I may give a whirl in a few months to see if it would be more savings versus the intelligence mode.
**Note on hot water temp below - this is a remote probe sensor that zip ties externally to the hot water outlet. Even at factory 120 degree setting the most I see is 116 degrees on the app. The 110 below is due to controller being in standby (I think) - lowest I have seen was 105/106 or thereabouts.
