Saving Money with a Custom Electric Infrared Water Heater

There are a lot of people who have natural gas as their heating source for their home. This means that you will be using the natural gas to power your water heater. In the past, it was almost an absolute fact that natural gas cost less than electricity when it came to heating. However, there are many ways around this olden truce. The main reason why electric water heaters cost more than natural gas water heaters was simply due to the fact that most of the energy was lost through resistance as many electric water heaters would use the same design as an over which would draw well over 1000 watts when active.

However, a test with a basic infrared heater would prove otherwise when it came to having an electric water heater. In a custom, but makeshift, electronic infrared heater that I built I was able to generate enough heat energy using only a 300 watt infrared heater to sufficiently power a water heater. This electric infrared heater could stay on 24 hours a day and still won’t break the bank. I simply placed the infrared heater under the water heater AFTER TURNING OFF AND DISCONNECTING THE GAS LINES. I put that in bold because I don’t want anyone trying to apply any kind of heat to gas lines even though it is very little wattage.

It generated hot water sufficiently for a household of 2 people. It takes a while to get started, but it is usually more than enough hot water for each day. Remember that this infrared heater is set to 300 watts. That means it drains about the same energy as three 100-watt light bulbs. Taken from Georgia Power’s website, the price-per-therm in the lower tier is approximately $0.05 per kilowatt hour. That means, even if you left this on 365 days out of the year then it would only cost your $133.06 of energy per year. If you use over 1 megawatt (1 million watts) of energy in one month then you will be moved to the highest tier per therm. At the point, the most it would cost you to leave it on indefinitely would be $227.85 per year. Even then it could never cost that much since the highest tier only applies to the energy used after the 1 megawatt mark.

Disclaimer: If you try this it will be at your own risk.


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