Electric water heater kwh per day

[mail4deal]

I have 3 year old 80 gallon water heater. Looking at the label it states estimated yearly energy use is 5392kwh.

Does that imply on daily basis the water heater uses 15kwh ?

My electric bills are through the roof and I have started trying to figure out if this water heater is the culprit!! Since I have been monitoring the HVAC refrigerator and other major appliance usage.

When I look at my electric utility bill...the app shows every time we take shower the kwh jumps from roughly 1.5kwh to 6-8 khw...this is the main reason I think the water heater is the hoggin a big chunk of our bill.

For reference the water heater is state water heater proline series installed in 2021. Model # EG6-80-DRRT 200

240 VOLTS/4500 AMPS

any inputs on how good this water heater is in terms of energy efficiency or energy hogging! Thanks for your feedback

 

[Twowaxhack]

Electric water heaters are very efficient converting the electricity to heat but the cost to operate them is still high because of the cost of electricity.

Things to help you.

1) Use less hot water
2) Make sure you don’t have a hot water leak
3) Turn the temp down of the water heater

 

[Ludington]

Just to give you an example ... we have a 50 gallon 5500 tank and use 60-80 kw a day. There are 2 of us. So far this year we have used 2687 Kw. It is the biggest electric user we have.
Your heater is going to use 4.5 Kw an hour ... but that's if it stays on solid for an hour.
Looking at my usage, when my tank turns on, most times it's on for 8 or 10 minutes.
Depending on if someone is using it for a while... I'm betting my wife took a long shower last night around 12:30 as it ran for 25 minutes and used 2.5 Kw.
Depending on what type of hvac you have, that can pull some watts too. I use geothermal, so it's fairly inexpensive.... my hog is the water heater, but still it only uses about $400.00 a year.
Hope this gives a little insight .

 

[mail4deal]

Thanks for your feedback..I am wondering how many kwh /day does this heater use when hot water is not really used. Looking at usage I have 2kwh per hour used. So is it really just the water heater or I have another appliance that is acting like a vampire device!!

 

[Twowaxhack]

The water heater should heat intermittently. If the water heater is heating continuously then that would most likely indicate a hot water leak or a malfunction of the water heater.

You could always turn the breaker off if you wanted but the water heater doesn’t use electricity 24/7, it only uses electricity when the thermostats cool to below the cut on temp.

 

[MicEd69]

Do you happen to have a hot water circulating system? If you do, is it well insulated. And if you do and even if it is insulated, is it circulating continuously?

If that is the case, stop using it and see what happens to your electric usage.

 

[GymBag]

An industrial timer can be installed inline and turned off during the night, when it's not generally used. It will naturally take longer to return to max temperature, but it will save the cost of heating during the night.

 

[mail4deal]

I was thinking about the timer as well. But before I did that wanted to be sure it was going to lower my hourly usage. I turned off the circuit breaker for the water heater and HVAC and furnace last night and looked at my hourly kwh usage when it was off. I am still hitting 1.5KWh every hour!!

I have a crawlspace dehumidifier which I am measuring around 0.6kwh every hour. Rest of the 0.9kwh...i am still trying to figure out!!! The things that I can think of other than the Internet router, laptops and TV cable box are the a radon fan, aerobic sewage system both of which are on all the time.

Have two refrigerators which pull 2kwh/day which is 0.2 kwh. Not sure what is pulling around 0.6 kwh every hour!!!

 

[Twowaxhack]

Turn all your breakers off, then flip them on one by one until you flip the one or ones where the power is being used.

As you flip them on and if they show power being used, track what could be on that circuit using power.

 

[GymBag]

I was thinking about the timer as well. But before I did that wanted to be sure it was going to lower my hourly usage. I turned off the circuit breaker for the water heater and HVAC and furnace last night and looked at my hourly kwh usage when it was off. I am still hitting 1.5KWh every hour!!

I have a crawlspace dehumidifier which I am measuring around 0.6kwh every hour. Rest of the 0.9kwh...i am still trying to figure out!!! The things that I can think of other than the Internet router, laptops and TV cable box are the a radon fan, aerobic sewage system both of which are on all the time.

Have two refrigerators which pull 2kwh/day which is 0.2 kwh. Not sure what is pulling around 0.6 kwh every hour!!!

Unplug anything that's not essential for the night and check the use- all electronic/electrical devices state their consumption on a label or it can be found in the manual. The Radon fan and sewage system are the largest users.

That dehumidifier must be a fairly large one- I have a portable oil heater that looks like a small radiator- I used a Kill A Watt to measure the use and in the low setting and the dial around 3 (out of 10) it shows 600W and that only heats for a few minutes at a time, so maybe 15 minutes/hour. That comes to 150W/Hr and with natural gas prices constantly climbing, using it really helps to keep my bill lower.

 

[wpns]

If your baseload (the number your consumption for the entire house never drops below) is one and a half kilowatts, then you have something else going on. Try turning off breakers until the problem goes away, and then you know you found it. Another way is to take a clamp on a meter and put it over each of the Wires coming out of your breakers until you find some thing significant.

It could also be just a number of things that are running constantly in your house. My baseload in one of my houses is about a kilowatt when I’m not there, but that’s because there are a lot of computers and water treatment And other things that run 24x7.

What is your daily total, and what does electricity cost in your area?

 

[mail4deal]

If your baseload (the number your consumption for the entire house never drops below) is one and a half kilowatts, then you have something else going on. Try turning off breakers until the problem goes away, and then you know you found it. Another way is to take a clamp on a meter and put it over each of the Wires coming out of your breakers until you find some thing significant.

It could also be just a number of things that are running constantly in your house. My baseload in one of my houses is about a kilowatt when I’m not there, but that’s because there are a lot of computers and water treatment And other things that run 24x7.

What is your daily total, and what does electricity cost in your area?

Base load is roughly around 1.5kw at night.. billing is roughly $.2/kw. I have a aerobic sewage treatment system..I was thinking that should not be consuming that much..but will try switching it off tonight and watch the change

 

[Twowaxhack]

1500watts is like a hair dryer running 24/7

 

[wpns]

Base load is roughly around 1.5kw at night.. billing is roughly $.2/kw. I have a aerobic sewage treatment system..I was thinking that should not be consuming that much..but will try switching it off tonight and watch the change

Aerobic sewage system should be around 50W, but everything else adds up. I’d get a clamp-on ammeter and go through the breaker panel. It sounds like you can make measurements with the system you have, but it sounds like it’s kind of cumbersome?

Also, not to be anal, but you are mixing and matching terms and units and values to the point where it’s getting difficult to understand your postings.

I had a client who couldn’t figure out where all his power was going, and it turned out he was leaving his air handler on in his HVAC system just to circulate the air. Found it in five minutes with a clamp on ammeter.

 

[Twowaxhack]

I think you’ve figured out it’s not the water heater.

Good luck to you.