From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: rec.boats.cruising,rec.outdoors.rv-travel,sci.energy,
	sci.engr.heat-vent-ac
Subject: Re: Power cost of idle electric water heater
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 00:38:14 -0500
Message-ID: <t4mk60947gd2tked1aimmngfcsqtkivtpk@4ax.com>

On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 00:53:00 GMT, "Phil Sherrod"
<phil.sherrod@REMOVETHISsandh.com> wrote:

>
>On 30-Mar-2004, "Doug Dotson" <ddotsonNOSPAM@cablespeed.com> wrote:
>
>> Did you consider a demand heater? Whould seem to make sense
>> for occational type use.
>
>Yes, but there was no way to justify it.  Since the maximum savings with my
>power rate would be $3/month it would take a LONG time to offset the hundreds
>of dollars in extra cost.  Plus, I can easily switch off the circuit breaker
>for the weeks or months when we don't need the heater.

If you live in a humid area I'd recommend not switching the heater off.  The
outside of the tank is still just steel with the fiberglass insulation in
contact.  When the humidity is high humidity will condense on the tank surface
and set up rust.  The fiberglass will help hold the water in there.

BTDT at my summer cabin in the Smokey mountains.  Lost 3 water heaters in
short order to outside-the-tank rust before I gave in and left it energized
all the time.  Current heater's been there for 10+ years.

John