Vacation home hot water heater ?

[gvladybug]

I have a cabin in southern Colorado at about 8600ft. We use the cabin sporadically during the summer and fall. We are looking to reduce our utility costs.

We have a 2012 GE Electric 50 gallon hot water heater.
When we shut the cabin down in the winter we will shut off the water at the main to the cabin, open all the faucets, and drain the hot water heater and leave the valve open. We also put RV Antifreeze in the p-traps of the sinks and leave the heaters on set to 50.

My question is -- for the summer when we might use the cabin with gaps 2-5 weeks apart -- can we turn the hot water heater off and not drain it?
What are the positives and negatives of this?

My mother-in-law believes that draining the hot water heater increases the odds of the heating element going out.

Advice on how to save $$ as electricity in the rural area is very expensive and also not cause damage to our hot water heater.

Thanks!
GV

 

[Jadnashua]

You will quickly destroy an electric heating element if the tank is not fully filled, before you turn it on...otherwise, it probably won't make any difference.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[gvladybug]

You will quickly destroy an electric heating element if the tank is not fully filled, before you turn it on...otherwise, it probably won't make any difference.

Definitely -- we try to wait a significantly long time prior to turning anything on.

My goal here is to reduce our electricity bill while the cabin is not being used. Winter shutdown we turn off and drain the hot water heater. But for those times where it might be a month or two weeks between the cabin being used -- what is the best method? Turning off and draining the hot water heater or just turning the hot water heater off.


To be wordy here --
Shutdown for the winter:
We shut the water off at the main.
We turn off the hot water heater (electric).
We hook up a hose to the valve on the bottom of the hot water heater and drain it into a floor drain.
We turn the hot and cold water on for each sink and flush each toilet twice until there is no water in the tank.
Any residual water in the toilet we wet vac out.
We add RV Antifreeze to the P-Traps and into the water tank for the toilets.
We lift the lever on the ice maker in the freezer to shut off the ice maker.

To open the cabin back up:
We remove the hose from the bottom of the hot water heater and close the valve.
We turn the water on at the main to the house.
We let the air in the lines move through since the faucets are all on.
When there is no more air we turn the faucets off. We also flush the toilets.
We wait about 30-45 minutes then turn on the hot water heater. It is a 50 gallon hot water heater so that should be sufficient time to completely fill.

Again, we are wondering for the times where we are not there during the summer months instead of completely draining the hot water heater and doing the full cabin shutdown ---

Can we just turn the Hot Water Heater off?
This will save us on electricity use heating water no one will be there to use.

I am guessing there are some negatives to this. One being the risk of the hot water heater failing and water going everywhere. But are there others?

Thanks!
GV

 

[Terry]

You can always turn off the breakers anytime.
Leaving water in the tank when it's above freezing is okay too. There are plenty of homes and cabins left vacant for periods of time that never drain the tank.
Like mentioned above, the breakers don't get flipped back on until the tank is full. It sounds like you have that handled.
With the water off off during an absence, there is less chance of flooding while gone.
In the Summer, I would leave water in the tank.

 

[hj]

Turn off the electricity to the heater and turn off the main water line so NOTHING can flood if something "fails".

 

[Dana]

What hj said!

My in-laws have an electric water heater that is now over 30 years old in an intermittent-use summer condo (that has a minimum winter heat requirement for freeze protection). The standard protocol when leaving (whether for a week, or for several months) is to turn off the main water feed to the condo and throw the breaker on the water heater.

They need to do a better job of keeping the evaporation rates on the toilets down when leaving for months, since they have sometimes run dry over the winter leading to sewer gas issues. But that's separate from the water heater issue.

 

[Dj2]

Are you looking for a cabin/house sitter by any chance?

 

[gvladybug]

Thank you all. I appreciate the information and look forward to the utility cost savings.

 

[gvladybug]

Are you looking for a cabin/house sitter by any chance?

We have a caretaker currently.

 

[gvladybug]

One more question that has came up:
Do we need to leave an upstairs hot water knob 'on' until the tank is full for sure.
The concern is that air pressure may build in the tank, preventing it from filling completely with water (just a theory).

What do you guys think?

 

[MACPLUMB]

YES, keep that faucet open till runs water for a few minutes, other wise you will burn out the upper element

 

[Jadnashua]

You need a valve higher than the tank to be open to purge the air in the tank.

 

[Reach4]

You need a valve higher than the tank to be open to purge the air in the tank.

How do you figure?

 

[Jadnashua]

To be more correct, to get all of the air out of all of the pipes, you need to open each one, but you're right, the tank itself should purge with any flow through a valve attached to the tank's outlet which is above the tank. It would not necessarily purge all of the air if the actual drain valve at the bottom of the tank was opened, so you would need one above the top of the tank open. Depends on how you want to look at it. You have to have water coming out of the top of the tank to ensure it gets full of water.

 

[MACPLUMB]

The poster has posted about a "upstairs" tub faucet open