Noticed that the Hot Water heater began to show some shorter burns of the heating element. The periods of “element on” were much shorter then usual and the frequency of “turn on” increased. This Sense monitored change basically led me to go down and check out the Water Heater. Noticed the top heater was cycling abnormally. Popped the bottom element heater cover and found the insulation was wet. As it turns out, the tank was leaking, but I caught it very early. Just a tiny bit of water trickling down, being mostly absorbed by the insulation. So, before I had to be surprised with the Hot Water being down, I found the problem, attributed to the Sense monitor system.
Sense allows us to “measure” the actual usage by device and review the history profile by individual device. This measurement gives us concrete information of the power status today and some history to compare too. Thank you, Sense!
By the way, the new Hot Water heater was replaced with A.O. Smith heat pump hybrid! We have been monitoring and measuring several of these new style Water Heaters. We have measured cost of running these new heat pump hybrids and have determined that the new ones reduce the cost of Hot water by 400 to 800%. So, if your standard HW uses $30 a month, the new one costs $5 a month the avg is 600 % savings! That’s about $25 a month in electrical savings per month or $300 a year (avg). Since your Hot Water, in most residences is the biggest electric hog, biggest savings here is appreciated. That leads to another topic discussion, later!
You mat want to add your KWh cost to the information. I pay over 30c per KWh and have had some old TVs that used $3 per month just in standby mode. Your full installation costs and the size of the house/number of users would also be nice for comparison.
I have a bar fridge that uses 31KWh/month, or $9/month. I am sure my main fridge uses more than your old hot water system.
Location also affects the cost of a hybrid hot water heater. Colder climates “borrow” the heat from internal heating systems.
tpicco… We switched to a heat pump water heater three plus years ago. Much easier when you are on solar. Our water heater pulls about 350 watts… Now put a clock on it and only let it run when the sun is up… Good find… Later…Gerry
Jon,
Yes, your KWH cost is actually double mine (including the infrastructure cost). Mine with infrastructure cost (delivery charges) is .16 KWh. With yours being double it appears that would make your savings quite significantly higher. The numbers I tried to use are very conservative averages, so you may be in the neighborhood of saving almost 2 times my conservative 600% of your todays current cost to run.
I’m going to start another thread on “Hot Water Heat Pump Hybrid”. I agree,
your location, especially in colder areas could negatively impact your savings. I’m comparing my specific area with several known new installations in the same area. The only change is the “new hybrid heat pump hot water heater” So, it is a solid comparison, apples to apples here.
K8GER DE WA3RNB, send me a QSL card!
Thanks for the “good find”, appreciate that. I was just very excited to report
another FIX based on the Sense technology. I have past history of software development engineering and would love to work on some
new Sense algorithms. I’m going to start a new Topic on Hot Water Heat Pump Hybrids.
tpicco… Real fine… See if you cam PM me and I will have a card(s) for you. I also have a QSL card from when I put Islands on the Air a few years ago. I have asked here before on how to PM and can’t remember … I put the South Manitou Island on the air that is out in Lake Michigan… Rustic camp sites… Later…Gerry
You should be able to click on the users name you want to PM and then click “Message” to PM.
Thank You… James… Gerry