“Hey! You skipped the kitchen,” I hear you exclaim. I am stubborn and don’t want to change my kitchen, my cooking habits or my appliances so I am stomping past it to the basement…for now.
In my basement there is a high efficiency, energy star rated, gas fired furnace which is brand spanking new so no change there and the hot water heater. The basement also has a mystery of pipes and ducts with no seeming rhyme or reason for their placement or direction. The pipe mystery is easily solved with a little detective work but the hot water heater is lurking there in the corner trying to hide but I have it in my sights.
Our hot water heater is 20 years old this year. That is way past its expected life span so it is time to replace it before we have no hot water and/or a flood in the basement. It is an 80 gallon, electric model and its information plate tells me that it draws 208 volts and consumes 3375 to 4500 connected watts. So how much power does it consume? I am going to make LOTS of assumptions here including the really big one: How much power does the machine use keeping the hot water hot?
Estimating hot water use without a dedicated meter is tough stuff
All those assumptions have made my head spin so I have purchased a meter for my hot water heater so I can see what it really draws. Note that electric hot water is usually about 30% of total electric use and this 2341 kWh is 29.2% of mine. Given the above I can draw some tentative conclusions:
- My hot water heater demand is about 2,341 kWh of electricity per year
- At my current electric rate that is $324.14 per year in electricity
- In the Average American example that is 3,162 kWh and $437.82 per year.
What can I do to save money?
Replace the water heater yes, but with what? Solar hot water with gas fired on-demand back-up? Solar hot water with an electric tank back-up? A new electric tank? Gas fired on-demand tankless? An electric heat pump hot water tank? Whoa – too many choices.
There are lots of reasons to pick one over the other but I have four main criteria:
- I want a simple to operate and simple to maintain system – no change in lifestyle
- I want a quick payback on my investment
- I want to save money on operation so it needs to be efficient and at least Energy Star rated.
- I want to help save the planet by reducing my carbon footprint
That makes the choice list go down by two – no gas fired appliances – too bad because I really like those tankless gas systems. Next time we will compare the three remaining choices as they are all compelling.
