|
Your terminology is a little confusing. Your water heater is averaging 3.2 kilowatts or 3200 watts. The meter measures kilowatt hours which is kilowatts times hours. The water heater uses about 77 kilowatt hours each day or about 2300 KWH each month. I would check to see how much power the water heater is designed to draw when it is working. If it is less than 3200 watts then something else must be taking power on that circuit.
I suggest that you try turning off the water heater by using the controls on it. Then watch the meter. Then you can find out whether the problem is the water heater or something else on the same circuit.
One way you could reduce the power consumption a lot is to keep the water heater off most of the time. Just turn it on a couple of hours before you take a shower and then turn it off after your shower. If you take one shower per week that shouldn't be too inconvenient. If you are running out of money you can't take too many. If you need some hot water for washing dishes you can heat it on the stove instead of using the water heater.
If you decide to keep it on for your convenience, I suggest using some pipe insulation for the hot water pipes so the water heater doesn't need to heat your apartment as much. Also turn down the thermostat control on the water heater to the lowest temperature that is sufficient for comfortable showers.
I think the most likely problem is that your water heater is sending water to some other apartments so it has to run almost all the time to keep the water hot.
|