What a difference 10C makes to a Hot water storage system

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Originally Posted by PhilipA

A couple of months ago the thermostat in my 11year old 315 L Hardie Dux died, for AFAIR the second time.
It had melted near one of the terminals for the element from a bad connection and distorted the over temp contacts.
I bought a new thermostat from Reece and at the time noted that it had a yellow surround to the temperature selector rather than red and it's minimum was 60C rather than 50C.( even though the scale read down to 50C, you could not turn it further than 60C.)
It lasted 5 weeks.
They replaced it no problem with another with a yellow surround and 60C minimum.
I bought another on line for half the price with a red surround that did go down to 50C.

I became a bit concerned seeing my 2year fixed electricity contract expires on 8/10/2018 and it had about a 30% increase in off peak 1 rates so I logged the Kw usage overnight.

For the 60C thermostat the usage was 6.8Kw over night. YIKES! At that rate my bill would be $90 for hot water only.
So I fitted the 50C thermostat and first night usage was 1.2Kw , as I guess the water was hotter at start up .
Last night the usage was 2.5 Kw.
So what a difference 10C makes.
Am I anal?
Regards Philip A

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Why don't you run for a week at both temperatures and see the difference.... The first night you had the 60degree thermostat in .... the HSW heated the entire tank from 50 to 60degrees..... the 2nd night iwth the 50degree thermostat ..... it may have still been gradually cooling down.

Oh, and wow, only $90 for hot water ? .... Our last bill came in at $780 for power. I can't remember the off peak component of that though.

seeya
Shane L.

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Why don't you run for a week at both temperatures and see the difference...

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The system has been running at 60C for about 7 weeks.
I just took the latest day by photographing the meter.
I was so alarmed that I immediately changed to the Ebay 50C thermostat.
I have taken samples over 3 days and it is about 2.8 Vs 6.8 which was typical of the 60C setting AFAIK. there was no extra use the day before, in addition to our showers.
Regards Philip A

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PhilipA

The system has been running at 60C for about 7 weeks.
I just took the latest day by photographing the meter.
I was so alarmed that I immediately changed to the Ebay 50C thermostat.
I have taken samples over 3 days and it is about 2.8 Vs 6.8 which was typical of the 60C setting AFAIK. there was no extra use the day before, in addition to our showers.
Regards Philip A

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Interesting. ... Ours could probably be turned down. The water from it (off peak storage electric HWS) is very hot. I don't want to loose capacity due to lower temperatures though ( 2 adults 3 kids == lots of showers ).

seeya,
Shane L.

You never said whether you are on Solar or not, but i think not from what you have said ^ ^ ^.

If so, you can have a Power Diverter which needs the HWS tank temp up to 60 or 70c (I can't recall which) which ensure it raises the temp to the high setting, once per week (well mine does), to get the Bug Killer cycle if the tank hasn't reached it's set temp in that week so ensures your HWS gets the treatment.

Ok, so it draws more KW but as one is on Solar you get it back.


Just sayin'. [bigsmile1]