Originally Posted by bunnspecial
I went through a stint of flipping it off at the breaker every day after I'd taken a shower, and then not turning it back on until ~1 hour before(I usually take a shower at night, but if I knew I was going to be taking one in the morning I'd turn it on right before bed).
I saw maybe $1-2 difference per month over the course of a few months. Ultimately I quit, though, when I realized the temperature hadn't dropped all that much(about 15ºF with the hot tap turned on all the way) even after being off for a weekend when I was away.
I suspect that you'd save more money by shortening your shower time a minute or two and/or dropping the temperature of your shower a bit. Ultimately, the biggest energy drain is from having to heat water coming in to the tank, not from keeping stored water hot, and using less hot water will help you out on that.
May I also add the suggestion for a hot water re-circulation pump, since most loses are in current pipe/delivery to sink/faucet?
I went through a stint of flipping it off at the breaker every day after I'd taken a shower, and then not turning it back on until ~1 hour before(I usually take a shower at night, but if I knew I was going to be taking one in the morning I'd turn it on right before bed).
I saw maybe $1-2 difference per month over the course of a few months. Ultimately I quit, though, when I realized the temperature hadn't dropped all that much(about 15ºF with the hot tap turned on all the way) even after being off for a weekend when I was away.
I suspect that you'd save more money by shortening your shower time a minute or two and/or dropping the temperature of your shower a bit. Ultimately, the biggest energy drain is from having to heat water coming in to the tank, not from keeping stored water hot, and using less hot water will help you out on that.
May I also add the suggestion for a hot water re-circulation pump, since most loses are in current pipe/delivery to sink/faucet?
