Water Heater Monitor – Aquanta

Water heating is one of the largest energy usage in the home, electric or gas. An electric water heater has long been the largest electric load in the home. Before Electric Vehicles came along of course.

How do you monitor water heater usage? Its simple with either a new WiFi enabled water heater or add on smart device. Both new and add-on devices come with a mobile application that shows how often and for how long your water is heated, giving detailed reports on patterns and tips to consume less.

Benefits of data from your water heater:

• Usage Patterns

• Usage Tips

• Leak Detection

• Notice of Usage

Usage Patterns:
The most obvious advantage to having usage information from the water heater is visualizing the hot water usage. This was anti-climactic in that usage was very normal showers, dishes, and the occasional hand washing.

Usage Tips:
Biggest tip I’ve found is that having a new well insulated tank is the biggest factor. We have a 7 year old 40 gallon tank and even without usage it regularly warms up slightly every 5-8 hours from general heat loss. The other usage tips for conserving water heater usage are fairly standard; lower the thermostat setting, take colder showers, repair leaky faucets, and insulate pipes.

Leak Detection:
By monitoring the system and in some cases an additional device the homeowner is notified of a leak. We have a secondary z-wave leak detector, some new water heaters state they are able to alert of a hot water leak anywhere in the home based on usage patterns and trends.

Notice of Usage:
Similar to leak detection the connected water heater can alert the app when there is usage. This is mostly usage over the standard re-heat threshold and is a little big-brother if you ask me. Although, our parents who have cabin homes are considering adding these to help manage heating while away.