DHW -- Oil vs Electric, getting closer to real numbers.

[SmokeyTheBear]

Average daily power requirement for a 50 gallon electric hot water tank is about 7.61 KWh which is 231.5 KWh/month

 

[TLHinCanada]

I have a 50 gal. U.S. electric tank with a blanket. Haven't done the math in a while, but, when I installed a timer (run 6 hrs. a day) my hydro went down 20 %.

 

[BradH70]

Average daily power requirement for a 50 gallon electric hot water tank is about 7.61 KWh which is 231.5 KWh/month

That's $34 a month with my electric rates. Sure does seem a lot cheaper then oil at almost $100 a month. Maybe I should talk to a different receptionist.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Just remember average figures may not apply to a particular case.

I keep looking at it but haven't looked at it in detail, my current goal is to reduce my total electrical usage and an electric water tank ain't gonna help at all.

 

[briansol]

I've also considered moving off the boiler and installing an electric hot water heater. Even the on-demand type has caught my eye. Ihad electric at my condo a few years back and my power bill was only a few bucks more than Im paying now in my house in the fall/spring time (effectively the same electric usage of no heat or cooling--- maybe a few kw/h more for a better-lit kitchen-- and no oil bill.
But, frozen pipes scare me. My basement is 1/2 burried, but i fear it might get too cold without a furnace running there. Would suck to waste all that money only to find out that the furnace still needs to run anyway-- or install another zone for heat which would run on the furnance too.
How do you test it, while living there?

 

[maple1]

Heating DHW with oil in the non-heating season is a losing proposition no matter how it's sliced. I recently yanked out my wood/oil boiler that did our heat & hot water year round for the last 17 years, and replaced it with a new wood boiler that will do both when it's fired, an electric boiler for heat backup (will be rarely used), and electric hot water tank for DHW when the wood boiler isn't being fired. Along with heat storage.

BTW this thread might get a lot more input if it wasn't in the pellet section - maybe the DIY one?

 

[velvetfoot]

For me, even during the heating season, it's not a winner because with the wood stove, the oil boiler is only on in the evening upstairs.

 

[rona]

Ok, so I have just about run this topic dry (no pun intended), but......

I am starting to come up with some real figures for electric vs oil to generate DHW. I have been trying to schedule my oil deliveries when the oil tank gauge is between the E and 1/4 lines and I get only the minimum delivery of 125 gallons. That way I can pretty accurately tell how long it takes to use up the 125 gallons to heat the water.

In the house are me, my wife a 3 year old and a 4 month old.

So I had another delivery yesterday of 125 gallons. Based on the delivery history on the slip, over the past 20 months (actually 19 months and 28 days) I have used 500 gallons of oil (and no, I did not include this most recent 125 gallons in that figure) to generate our hot water.

So that means we are using 25 gallons a month and at the current rate of $3.69 / gallon that is $92.25 per month to heat the water.

This is starting to make feel even more inclined to switch over to an electric hot water tank. Considering that my system is in the range of 55-65% efficient for making DHW, that works out to be in the range of $50 - $60 dollars for electric. PSNH claims $68 a month for a family of four, but I bet this is on the high end.

So using my numbers, that is a saving of $32 per month. I'm thinking of hiring a plumber to install the new electric tank so I'm guessing that the install will probably run in the range of $750 - $1,000 with the cost of the tank included in that. Worst case is a 2 1/2 year payback. I could probably make this better by adding a timer to the water heater so that it is not heating water during the night.

Now, what is the best electric water heater for the money? I don't want and on demand system, I want a storage tank. Are the $350 HD specials as good as the new fancy fiberglass ones? The spec sheets all seem to show the same performance, no matter the type of tank.

I put in a new Marathon this past spring This is the newstyle super insulated plastic, fiberglass, or non metal unit. It was more money then the metal type but it won't rust out and it will be cheaper to run then the metal ones. It takes the same amount of electricity to heat the water in either a metal tank or the Marathon but the Marathon with its superior insulation holds the water temp much longer then the old type. If you switch to electric I would certainly suggest the Marathon as you are getting the latest technology and it has been around long enough that the bugs are worked out. I got ours through our local coop electric company that supplies our power. They have enough purchasing power that they could save a lot buy buying in volume and passing the savings onto us. I knew several friends that purchased this same unit before us and they were more then satisfied so we ended up with one too. Ours has 61 gallon capacity which I thought was to much for us but once the water is hot it stays hot so the size doesn't matter. Our old one was 40 gallons , and 20+ years old. I added a fiberglass insulating "blanket" on the old one hoping to save electricity but it isn't as good. We have had this unit 6 months and every electric bill has been between 5 and 10.00 cheaper then a year ago so it does make a difference.

 

[maple1]

For me, even during the heating season, it's not a winner because with the wood stove, the oil boiler is only on in the evening upstairs.

Yes, true that also - I guess my point was that during the non-heating season the losses are even more.

 

[JDenyer236]

We went with a hybrid water heater and love it so far. It uses a heat pump and also has full resistance backup in case it's needed to meet demand, wife likes long showers and haven't even come close to runnning out yet. During the summer my basement is 70F, in the winter it gets into the mid 40s. The heat pump will run down to 45F ambient, after that it energizes the resistance elements. I get about 8 months of heating with only the heat pump and this is in Maine. I too was in the same position as the OP, $100/month for DHW with oil. We also installed a heat pump upstairs and use the pellet stove for the downstairs, oil use so far this year $0.00

 

[boosted3g]

All i can say is wow that is a lot of money for hot water. My total electric bill is about 80 per month with electric everything. Im the spring and fall i run the heat pump and my bill jumps to 120ish. Ill have to check the full electric bill to see what in paying but i do remember seeing 7.3 cent per kilowatt or something like that.

 

[drizler]

I went and put in a 40 gallon in an upstairs closet with a blanket 2 years ago. The oil pig got turned off and my electric bill went up $25/ month give or take and thats with 3 of us. On lowest setting it is fine though if I want to fill the 50 gallon whirlpool tub it has to be turned up all the way. Overall it was one fantastic move. The tank was under 200 at Lowes and the wire was about 100 since the breaker was across the house and I needed almost the whole box of 10 gauge. Slap in a breaker and run some plastic CPVC , it was a breeze. I'm used to soldered copper and comparatively it's a snap. Absolutely no detractors that I can think of. If you want the tank to last just make sure to drain it every year or so and change the annode in about 5 years. I heard all the tales of super high electric bills and believed them for years, not any more. I started space heating the parts of the house the pellet stove didn't reach a while back and pretty much gravitated into electric for most of it. So far this Fall I haven't even lit the pellet stove. Even with NYSEG rates electric just keeps looking better and better.

 

[maple1]

How much did you spend on oil before putting in the electric?

 

[subsailor]

I installed a 50 gal. electric a few years back. My electric went up about $30.00/month. A lot cheaper that DHW from a 50 year old boiler. I had budgeted $100/mo. for hot water with the boiler.

 

[343amc]

I'm electric everything and my average bill is $110 or so this time of year. Add about $70/mo when the AC is running. No propane, no natural gas, oil furnace. Rates here are about .12 kwH from what I can figure with taxes, distribution and taxes.

I bought a Richmond 9 year warranty water heater at Menards 10 years ago. I think it was $225 or so.

 

[DneprDave]

Wow, I've never seen an oil fired home hot water heater! It must be an east coast thing.

Gas and electric, that's all they have around here.

Do they still make them?

Dave

 

[imacman]

Wow, I've never seen an oil fired home hot water heater! It must be an east coast thing.

Gas and electric, that's all they have around here.

Do they still make them?

Dave

www.bockwaterheaters.com/products/oil_water_heaters.html

I had one in my home until about 5 yrs ago.....replaced it with a Bock indirect unit.

 

[subsailor]

Wow, I've never seen an oil fired home hot water heater! It must be an east coast thing.

Gas and electric, that's all they have around here.

Do they still make them?

Dave

In most cases the DHW comes off an oil fired boiler for baseboard hot water heating system. However, they do make just an oil fired hot water system and on demand kerosene fired systems.

 

[Harvey Schneider]

RESIDENTIAL RATES - SCHEDULE RS
Customer Charge
Per Delivery Point Per Month $19.46
Energy Charge Cents Per Kwh 9.122¢

That's TVA at work. The Federal government built an incredible power generation and distribution system based in the Tennessee valley. Its purpose was to supply power for the aluminum industry. Everybody in the area benefits from it. All of us paid for it.

 

[nate379]

That is about what we pay for juice.

My last bill was $82.23 for 523kWh. Works out to roughly $0.16 per kWh

Jesus H Christ! Sitting at around 9 cents here.

 

[saladdin]

That's TVA at work. The Federal government built an incredible power generation and distribution system based in the Tennessee valley. Its purpose was to supply power for the aluminum industry. Everybody in the area benefits from it. All of us paid for it.

Yep. Just miles away from our TVA plant. That Fed program gave a lot of people around here jobs including grandparents. Still seeing the benefit of the cheap electricity too.

 

[New Hampshire Jim]

Question: If you install a electric hot water heater and are able to not use the oil fired boiler all summer to make domestic hot water are there any bad things that can happen to your boiler by not running It?. Like leaks from the boiler sections. I have heard this could happen
Jim

 

[kofkorn]

The state of MA is currently offering a rebate of $1000 on a hybrid heat pump heater if it's installed by 12/31. It's listed as a rebate on a replacement heater our for new construction.

We just installed ours and are looking forward to some significant savings in the coming months.

--Kofkorn

 

[mrjohneel]

Hey thanks for this. It's making me really calculate my non-heating-season oil use for my hot water. I think I used (just me) about 70 gallons of oil over five months, or 14 gallons a month at $4/gal. That's $56 month. Now I have to figure out what I'd spend on electricity for a hot water heater. Thanks.

 

[saladdin]

The state of MA is currently offering a rebate of $1000 on a hybrid heat pump heater if it's installed by 12/31. It's listed as a rebate on a replacement heater our for new construction.

We just installed ours and are looking forward to some significant savings in the coming months.

--Kofkorn

That is a heck of a deal. I'm in TN, is your hybrid in a seperate room by itself? I looked at these but the requirements were crazy.