Sorry if I maybe using incorrect words, English is not my first language. I’m in France and there’s a big electric water boiler which provides all the hot water in our apartment. I have 2 questions regarding the energy consumption:
1. I suppose it consumes electricity initially to heat the water inside, but does it keep consuming to keep them warm?
2. Between 10pm – 6am, the electricity cost is lower in our plan. Does that mean it costs us less if we use the hot water(shower/dishes) between these times?
Cheers!
In: 1
Water heaters, at least in the US, are extremely well insulated. They do lose some heat to the environment, but it’s a lot less than you’d expect, especially if you also have your hot water pipes insulated. They only consume non-negligible amounts of electricity when they’re heating water and if you’re not actually using hot water, they’d probably only turn on the heating elements for less than half an hour per day under normal circumstances.
>Between 10pm – 6am, the electricity cost is lower in our plan. Does that mean it costs us less if we use the hot water(shower/dishes) between these times?
Yes. Though there’s some offset, so taking a long hot shower and ending at 6am won’t save much electricity compared to ending the shower at 530a.
You can have timer boxes installed to only allow the water heater to run during those hours and depending on the volume of your tank and your total daily usage you might not even notice. Though if you use more hot water in a day than your tank holds you will be in for a cold surprise.
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