Are you cheap in MOST all you do?

[Cd]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

Can you put a timer on the heater? Since you can predict when you'll need, and not need, hot water, then have it turn on a few minutes before then, then stay off for the rest of the night/day.
Or you could superinsulate it, so that with the lowered temperature it would turn on only 1-2 times a day.

One of the "cheap" things I learned from my Grandma is how to use the small remains of a bar of soap: squeeze it into the next bar. You might need to wet both to make it stick, but extends the soap's life by 2-4 days

Actually, its hot enough here in Texas that a lot of the heat in the water is from sunlight.
The water heater is in a small closet located on the patio. It get hours of direct sun.
In winter I will turn the heat up a notch. It worked alright in winter ( winter ...what's that ;-) .) but the water was meerly room temperature.

No modifications are allowed to the apartment.

Speaking if this sort of thing, I wanted to paint my cabinet walls in the kitchen yet knew that I couldn't actually paint onto the wood cabinets themselves.
Im surprised to say that I actually succeeded at an idea : use blue painters tape !
I used the wide 2" variety of blue painters tape and painted onto the tape itself .
I then applied the strips of painted tape to the cabinets .
After over a year, I have pulled off the tape and there is little to no residue .

To paint, I used waterbased tempera poster paint. It gave a nice matte finish look....and its Eco friendly. To my surprise, I painted my aluminum belly pan with this stuff as well as regular art acrylics ( the kind you find in tubes for less than $ 3 . Despite being on the BARE UNPRIMED metal over a year , the paint is still on !
Surprised the hell out of me ! ( I just wanted to see what it looked like with black paint. I never thought it would actually stick ! )

A lot of things that I do have the side benefit of being Eco friendly - less energy consumption, less pollution from driving, etc. so its not all about being "cheap"

It's a shame that to not be labeled " cheap " you usually have to be wasteful in some way.

I'll try and remember the soap idea.

[gone-ot]

...I prefer the more high-brow term, frugal.

[Frank Lee]

Re: water heaters: mine is natural gas; I've found that the "vacation" setting is quite enough especially since the only time I want really hot water is for the shower; I turn the thermostat up until it clicks, then return it to "vacation" and give it about 5 minutes... voila! The water is hot as can be and I'm pretty sure that nightly "kick" is the only time it fires up, unless I do laundry. One short cycle every 24 hours- not bad. Got me one of them "instant on" heaters but I didn't have to go buy one.

[ron]

now thats frugal . its also smart, a new installed tankless (bosch or
takagi ) costs between 2500 to 4000 bucks here in cal. the pay back for savings is 15+ years . So no savings at all. they only last 12 yrs and are high maintenance . the good old tank water heater are bullet proof. kinda like the edison lite bulb but thats another story

[Frank Lee]

Yeah, once upon a time I thought I wanted a tankless, but then I looked into it...

[ron]

I install several a year they are something that you dont want with kids, the water never gets cold

[JacobAziza]

Originally Posted by ron

now thats frugal . its also smart, a new installed tankless (bosch or
takagi ) costs between 2500 to 4000 bucks here in cal. the pay back for savings is 15+ years . So no savings at all. they only last 12 yrs and are high maintenance . the good old tank water heater are bullet proof. kinda like the edison lite bulb but thats another story

Good lord! $4000???

I paid $170 for mine on Ebay (new).
I can have a nice hot shower, with as much pressure as my low-flow shower head can handle. Easily too hot
If one wanted one with a higher flow rate, so that multiple people could shower at once, they have ones with 4.23GPM for $335.
It is zero maintenance, unlike a tank heater that needs to be drained regularly, and occasionally needs cathodes replaced.
The only reason I bought it was my old tank heater had a leak develop due to corrosion. It was cheaper to get a tankless than another tank heater!
So the "payback" time was instant.
Then on top of that, my gas bill dropped by roughly half.
AND I can take a shower as long as I want, the water never gets cold.

I think the moral is never shop at Home Depot (or equivalent) or let contractors install appliances that you can easily install yourself

[ron]

that sounds very cheep for a tankless, the brands i mentioned are the hi gpm type and gas fired . they are complicated to say the least i.e. sale switches, pressure compensated flo switches, larger vent in Stainless steel,& electrical required ! also requiring roof jack enlargement dont get me started. I bought mine on ebay also it was referbed (had been returned) &cheep I am a plumber, but do agree that contractors can get expensive

[JacobAziza]

I don't know what sale switches, pressure compensated flo switches are, all I know is I turn on the hot water faucet, and hot water comes out. So I'm thinking all that fancy stuff is just there to raise costs, not because it really offers a tangible benefit.
Reminds me of how installers only offer solar systems that cost thousands of dollars, so homeowners think that they either have to finance, or not solarize at all - but they only offer high kW utility intertie systems because that's what they can make the most mark-up on, not because its all that is available. My solar system cost a few hundred.

[ron]

lets just say when it does not work you cant go get a thermocouple at the hardware store and fix it.