A hot water service which is not working correctly can contribute significantly to any home or businesses energy bills. It doesn’t matter what source of energy is being used whether it be electricity, gas or solar (sun) via panels on a roof. If components have not been installed correctly or over time have started to fail then the system itself can start to operate inadequately and could be using huge amounts of energy leading to very nasty surprises when your next Origin or AGL retailers bill arrives in post.
For example, we recently attended a client’s home in Adelaide where they were questioning their excessive electricity bills. They are living in a 2 bedroom and 1 bathroom home in the heart of the city off Hutt Street. The hot water service being approximately 7 years of age and was a 125 litre DUX model. The latest electricity bill was $612 for the quarter just gone. The customer lives at the home by herself and is very mindful of electricity usage as the costs of energy consumption keep sky rocketing in South Australia. As you will see in the image on this page that the electrical components and the thermostat all appear to be in bad condition. When we performed some test on these parts with a multi meter it showed that the thermostat itself was not turning off, so the water heater was constantly heating 24/7. By doing this it had put excessive strain on the wiring also which could have resulted in other potential problems such as an electrical fire one day.
To have this problem rectified we firstly replaced the wiring from the switch board to the water heater. This hot water service is controlled via 20-amp circuit breaker dedicated to feeding the power to the this DUX unit only. We then changed over the Robert Shaw thermostat and checked that it was turning on and off (brand new). Because this water heater is only 125 litres it is not on J tariff electricity (off peak) it runs off M tariff (peak electricity) so we were able to leave the hot water service under load ensuring the customer will continue to get hot water.
If you suspect that your gas or electricity bills are too high it is important to have it checked out by a hot water specialist today before winter hits and your boiler starts to come under extreme pressures due to the changes in temperature.
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