Electric Hot Water Heater Timer

Letters: Replace power before closing plants

Joe Purkey, Knoxville

I think that the Tennessee Valley Authority is making a mistake by announcing the dates that they intend to shut down the coal-fired power plants. I'm afraid that we customers are the ones who will suffer rate increases when TVA shuts these plants down without sufficient power with which to replace them. They will be at the mercy of the electric power brokers and may end up paying exorbitant rates such as California had to do a few years ago.

I believe that TVA should have the additional power in place to replace all these units they shut down in addition to the growth power they will also need at that time.

In addition, I believe that TVA could reduce its additional capacity needs by at least 500 megawatts by providing timers to residential customers that will control the flow of electricity to storage-type hot water heaters. These timers would allow the water in these heaters to be heated only at nonpeak hours, such as after midnight, when TVA has excess power.

TVA had done a wonderful service for the valley for more than 75 years, and I hope that they don't give in to political pressure at the expense of the ratepayers.

I disagree with the editorials premise that TVA's commitment to retire a portion of its coal fleet will raise rates. Rightfully so, TVA would have been forced to install costly pollution controls at these plants to comply with clean air regulations that are long overdue. That would have cost billions. TVA's commitment to higher levels of energy efficiency, which DOES replace the energy produced by these coal plants, is probably the best bet to keep our rates relatively stable over the long term. TVA's increased use of natural gas will also help, as long as gas prices stay low, and the agency has thousands of MW of gas that they underutilize. What seems to me to be the most threatening to our low rates is TVA's aggressive push towards nuclear - private investors won't touch it with a 10-foot pole. Federal subsidies could get it built, but it will cost us all in the end. Ask yourself: with all that's going on in technological advances, if TVA goes forward with building the 40-year-old nuclear reactors at Bellefonte, when they come online in 2020, we're all going to be wishing that money had been invested in more modern, safer and less expensive energy sources.

in response to smg123 :

I disagree with the editorials premise that TVA's commitment to retire a portion of its coal fleet will raise rates. Rightfully so, TVA would have been forced to install costly pollution controls at these plants to comply with clean air regulations that are long overdue. That would have cost billions. TVA's commitment to higher levels of energy efficiency, which DOES replace the energy produced by these coal plants, is probably the best bet to keep our rates relatively stable over the long term. TVA's increased use of natural gas will also help, as long as gas prices stay low, and the agency has thousands of MW of gas that they underutilize. What seems to me to be the most threatening to our low rates is TVA's aggressive push towards nuclear - private investors won't touch it with a 10-foot pole. Federal subsidies could get it built, but it will cost us all in the end. Ask yourself: with all that's going on in technological advances, if TVA goes forward with building the 40-year-old nuclear reactors at Bellefonte, when they come online in 2020, we're all going to be wishing that money had been invested in more modern, safer and less expensive energy sources.

Gulf Stream Solar Kits » Intermatic WH21 Electric Water Heater Timer

Automatically schedules hot water only when needed. Turns water heater On during high-use periods; Off during low-use periods. Can save up to 33% on water heating costs. Up to 12 On and Off settings per day. External manual override switch. On indicator light. 240V/6250W, 60Hz. UL listed.

Features

You should have some background in electrical ampacity and wiring basics.

I did have to purchase an additional pigtail.(flex tubing with 3 #10 color coded wires, and 1/2 connectors on each end about 5 feet total length)

The heater had the wiring flex tubing direct from the wall to the top of the heater. The additional material was about 10.75 at the local hardware store.

I unhooked the wiring from the heater and wired it to the timer, then wired the new pigtail to where I had disconnected the original wires.

The timer has knockouts on the bottom for either 1/2 or 3/4 inch connectors so if it will accomodate either one. You most likely will have 1/2″ connections.

Make sure you turn off the breaker before you start.

The entire process took about an hour total.

The instructions that come with the timer aren’t that great, so if you don’t know what you are doing, it won’t help much.

The timer comes with 3 sets of on/off clips so you can time it on and off 3 times.

We set it at on at 5 am, off at 8 am, then on at 8 pm off at 10 pm.

Having purchased 3 of these units over the years I feel qualified to comment on their performance. The first one failed after 3 years – the clock mechanism still turned but the switches did not operate. I purchased a second unit as I did not want to install a new box & wiring. The box mounts to the wall first then the mechanism is installed inside. I only replaced the mechanism. This lasted for 2 years before the clock mechanism stopped turning. (I should have kept the first dead one.) Again I purchased another unit as wanted a simple fix & I will not be in this house for much longer. This last unit only lasted 2 weeks before the switches stopped operating. I did not want the hassle of dismounting & returning it so I stripped down both units & made good one out of the 2.

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