Control board replaced

I had to replace my aging propane water heater, and fire codes had changed so could not install propane again without excessive install cost as it could not vent to the house chimney like it used to.

So I went and purchased a Rheem from local Home Depot that was “supposed” to be the most energy efficient. Install went without hitch and energy bill sent up about 40 dollars a month, not terrible.

Then was contacted by Rheem and notified the control board had to be replaced. Coordinated with electrician and they paid for the replacement. After the replacement my electric bill doubled to over 350 a month. Contacted Electric company for assistance (Eversource) and they were absolutely no help.

Lets face it, your basically blind on what is using power and how much in the house. I purchased Sense to help me identify the cause of the double power bill, and it worked great for that. I installed Sense and verified in an hour what was the major cause, the new Hot Water heater. I could see right on my phone when it kicked in, and usage would jump 6000 watts. Pretty easy to see that.

I installed a WiOn 220VAC power controlling breaker, and automated it with Amazon Alexa. Set it up so it came on 20 min before we showered in the morning, for 1 hour. Then another timer for 4PM in evening for 45 minutes. Works great and we have hot water 24 hours a day. Plus if I need it, I can just tell Alexa to run the routine “Turn on water heater for 20 minutes”, and she will power it up, and 20 minutes later shut it down. My power bill was cut by over half and went back down to under 200, normally around 190 or so.

Share how you used the Sense app to help. Be specific!:
Installed Sense and could see right off the power usage of the whole house. I could see the usage jump to 8k watt when Hot Water heater powered on.

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