Off-Peak Electric Water heater quirks

[ManCave]

I learned something interesting about off-peak electric hot water heaters when you have a smart meter controlling it.

When the power company shuts off your hot water heater during the day, they don't shut off all the power to the hot water heater. They only shut off one 110 volt leg of the 220 volt circuit.

That threw me for a major loop when I was trying to debug why I had no hot water. I grounded one side of my test light to the case of the hot water heater and checked one side of the heating element and it showed that I had 110 volts there and yet I was getting no hot water. That 110 was potential only and because the other leg of the 220 was shut off there was no complete circuit.

Thought I would share in case anyone else ever encounters this situation. It was one of those things that made no sense (I had power) until I got more background on it and then it made sense! LOL!

 

[SALIV8]

Never heard of the electric company turning off electric.

Where do you live? I would be pissed if this is true. Can't be good for the element and not to mention I work a rotating shift.

 

[yeldogt]

When they used to do it around me they did it remotely -- controlled at the WH ... same with AC controller. It was off.


I'm wondering how the meter can do it .. do you have a separate meter?

 

[LS6 Tommy]

I hated those stupid controllers back in the 90's. I can't count how many "No cooling" service calls I made just to find out the poco had the customer shut down. I also can't count how many times people asked me to disconnect them...

Tommy

 

[ManCave]

The new smart meters have a built-in radio. The electric company can get the meter reading and control the meter remotely. Its not good...imagine what will happen when all the power meters get hacked.

Off-peak is where they charge a lot less for the power because you agree to let them shut off the power during peak times.

 

[yeldogt]

The new smart meters have a built-in radio. The electric company can get the meter reading and control the meter remotely. Its not good...imagine what will happen when all the power meters get hacked.

Off-peak is where they charge a lot less for the power because you agree to let them shut off the power during peak times.

I understand what it is -- I'm trying to understand how the electric company can do it through the meter (disconnect the water heater) and not have it do the whole house.

I have a smart meter -- I can now do peak/off peak power if i want ... but it's only on the pay side ..I manage the use.

LS6 is most likely talking about the individual AC controls popular in the NE a while back -- or unpopular. The power company paid you ..I think $5 a month to be able to cut you AC for 4 hours (I think 4) ... it woudl naturally happen when you most needed the AC.

The way they did the WH in PA -- you had to get a new WH -- they were bigger capacity to take care of the whole day. The units would fire up at night ... and they had a controlled way of heating during the day .. slow and often not enough. You had to really change the way you used hot water unless a very small household.

 

[Bert_]

This is why you always check line to line when diagnosing 240v equipment. The water heater does not use 120v so why would you test for 120V?

This is pretty common with the electric coop's around here. For all electric houses they give you a controller with several relays for water heater and HVAC. That stuff is run though a second meter and billed at a cheaper rate. I think it is around 5 cent/KW for the controlled rate around here. They also sell 80 gal water heaters for cheap to customers if they put in the switch.

They mainly just control the water heaters around here, shut them off during peak hours to held even out their load. They are not off all day and I haven't heard any complaints.

 

[PCustoms]

I've got 2 meters for my setup, one feeds the 200A main oanel, the other feeds a 30A disconnect for the h20 heater. I can hear the relay in the meter kick off if I'm outside.

Coupled with the "superstore" tank I pay like $13 a month for hot water

 

[6768rogues]

On the surface, I hate the idea. However, after reading more I would not be opposed to having a larger water heater that only heated at night at a much cheaper rate. I grew up in a house with a peak/off peak meter and we had a timer on the water heater so it only heated at night. We never ran out of hot water because we were aware of the volume.
Keep your hands off my AC, though.

 

[yeldogt]

I've got 2 meters for my setup, one feeds the 200A main oanel, the other feeds a 30A disconnect for the h20 heater. I can hear the relay in the meter kick off if I'm outside.

Coupled with the "superstore" tank I pay like $13 a month for hot water

That sounds like a good system and a cheap and easy way to provide hot water.

Total electric use has been flat and dropping since the early 2000's and percap has been dropping ... quite amazing IMO.

Wish we had a more rational (IMO) solar program