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About: I am a retired residential contractor. I started in home repair during college in Bloomington Indiana. Home repair evolved into remodeling and finally specialized in fixing and painting homes. Moved to Houston, Texas in 1984. People in west suburbs of Houston might remember my business called Paint’N. Along with a few helpers, we fixed and painted houses in assembly-line fashion, making sure the customer got the complete job before they paid a nickel.

Why water heater timers? Water heater timers came up because I wanted to cut household costs.

Frankly, attic insulation should be FIRST on any home improvement list because it will save the most money right away. While crawling around in the attic, use a strip of newspaper taped to a stick and check your heat/AC ducts for leaks. An efficient heat/air unit should follow attic insulation as the biggest money-saver. While you're figuring expensive items, make a list of daily energy-use, including water heater ... here are 9 ways to save with your water heater

After taking care of attic insulation and the heat/air unit, I focused on household electric use. I saw that all electric appliances could be switched off except the refrigerator-freezer and water heater. I cleaned the back and bottom of the refrigerator and called that good enough. Next came the water heater. I was surprised that my water heater consumed up to 16% of the electric bill in colder months, yet I used very few gallons of hot water each day.

It took a few months of research before coming up with different timers people could put on the wall see. I installed a countdown timer on my wall. Now I had full control over my electric bill. 

But what about people with gas water heaters? In the past few months two different companies introduced a gas water heater timer to the market see. Now your gas water heater can also be switched on and off like the gas furnace.

The work continues. I speak to folks about their water heater experience. Here's what I discovered: Everybody is aware of energy conservation. Many tradespeople already have a water heater switch. Almost every tradesperson is looking at energy solutions. Outside the trades, most people view a timer favorably. They are uncertain. Does it save money, is it safe, how does it work? People want a CEO to develop a timer and promote the features in public media for all to see. And they want a timer pre-installed on their water heater. The manufacturers are making new products see the new innovations. The professional appliance guy at Lowes told me that people are asking about programmable water heaters. People want solutions.

So, does a water heater timer save money? Yes it does. In a 2-person household, a timer cuts 7-9% off household energy bill IF homeowner is willing to: a.) schedule hot water use and b.) reduce hot water consumption. The significant thing is 7-9% fractionally equals almost 1/12th of yearly energy bill which means 1 free month of energy each year (for careful consumers).  Additionally, the water heater appliance last longer with less maintenance and fewer replacements.