The Benefits Of Water Heater Timers In Reducing Your Expenses
Hot water heater timers can offer a highly practical and cost-effective solution when paired with a solar PV system. They are great at helping you to cut down on your home water heating bills. This smart timing device can easily be fitted onto your home switchboard by a water heater professional.
How Water Heater Timers Work
During set times of the day, often around midday, the hot water timer will divert the electricity produced by your solar PV system to power up your water heater appliance. This means that your water heater will no longer draw electricity at peak tariff throughout the day. As many residents are usually out during the day, it means that most of the power produced by their solar PV system has been channeled back to the main grid. With a water heater timer, periods of peak solar power generation when nobody is home will be used to heat the hot water for the household.
Benefits of Using Water Heater Timers
- Allow users to make the most of the unused solar power that is generated through midday
- Use free solar energy to offset electrical appliances that use up a lot of electricity including the water heater system
- Using a timer means that the water is not being heated around the clock
- Prevent your home from using costly electricity at peak tariffs to heat up water
- Have an override function to enable the heating up of the tank from grid power if you have had an oddly demanding high-use day
Are Water Heater Timers Suitable for Me?
Every household has varying hot water requirements, thus it is recommended to get advice from a professional. The professional can assess your solar hot water system as well as your water usage to determine whether water heater timers are suitable for your household. Water heater timers work best with electric hot water systems that come with smaller components. This is due to the fact that the solar system will start to power up the solar hot water system once it produces adequate electricity to meet the component power requirements.
For most units, the component fitted to your existing storage tank can easily be replaced with a much smaller unit. The smaller unit will still be able to heat all the water in the tank even though it may need a much longer time to do so.
Households that are out for most of the day for work or school are ideal for water heater timers as the solar energy that their system produces during midday would usually just be channeled back into the grid. As feed-in tariffs are usually much lower than peak electricity, it makes sense to take advantage of the free green energy that your solar system is producing.