Timer for Water Heater (Pictures)

[Molo]

Jimbo,

This unit is completely independent of electric company control. All electricity used in the home between certain nightime hours is cheaper (this does mean that daytime use can be more expensive). The meter itself is the determining factor, not anything beyond it. Regardiung brown-out situations, I suppose the utility could change their hours of off-peak rates (and they do this occasionally), but not without notifying the customer.

Regarding the wiring, I'm wondering why 10-3 was used. How can I wire this so that both elements are controlled by the Grey-Box timer, and not just one?

Thanks,
Molo

 

[Bob NH]

With your timer, that you can control, it is clear that the electric company is not controlling it. The timer is allowing you to control it so you can minimize usage during peak hours.

The following link includes a schematic for a dual-element heater with upper-priority temperature switches. http://www.johnwoodwaterheaters.com/pdfs/61515_1G.pdf

If you look at the schematic for the two-element heater you will see that lower-element control requires only control of the conductor between Terminal 4 of the upper thermostat and Terminal 1 of the lower thermostat.

If you wanted to control both elements, which could leave you with no recovery during the OFF time, you would use the timer to interrupt the line going to Terminal 1 of the High Limit control, or both of them, or the link between the high-limit control and the upper thermostat.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[KD]

You need to show us the connections at the top of the WH in the WH junction box (or section). I assume that the yellow wires connect to black and red, but we need to see it. The blue wire should be marked with green tape and used as the ground wire. It does not need to go beyond the junction section.
Assuming the above is corrected:
terminal 1 red
terminal 2 black
terminal 3 yellow
terminal 4 yellow
green and bare wire = ground
the thermostat should be wired per factory diagram.

 

[hj]

timer

The appropriate way would be to connect the heater's yellow wires to the load terminals and then rewire the heater to the manufacturer's diagram with the lower element's black wire connected to the upper thermostat, probably under the upper left terminal of the thermostat, not the ECO, but that woud depend on which type of thermostat it is, SPDT, or DPST nc/no.