How To Install a Water Heater Timer - Step by Step - DIY
Video Summary
How To Install a Water Heater Timer - Step by Step - DIY
These little guys cost about $50 and there not that hard to install. It's an electric water heater timer switch. Basically, what it does is it turns your hot water heater on and off. As long as you set the times right, you won't even know that this thing is working. But what it will do is probably save you 20% or more on hot water electricity bills because your hot water heater is not going to be burning energy when your not here.
So what we're going to do today is I'm going to show you how to install this thing.
The first thing you want to do when you start is this project is obviously, as with any electrical project. You want to shut the power OFF. That way you don't get electrocuted. You need to find the circuit that's labelled for your water heater and shut it off.
The instructions are in 4 color and they have all the components listed. And it has the wiring diagrams, in color - full color, very well documented and laid out. Step one, step two, step three: couldn't be easier.
Before I put this on the wall, what I'm going to do is I'm basically going to. It might be hard get the lighting right so you can actually see it well. What I'm going to do is I'm basically going to show you the steps that you're going to take and then we'll actually do it on the wall.
Basically what is going to happen is you're going to have a wire that goes from the breaker box to the hot water heater - and you're going to cut it. So once you cut the line in half, you need to expose the wires. This one's going to go in this side and this one's going to go in this side. But before you stick this in the box, you might as well strip a little wire off of it. Striiippp. And then you tighten these screws and it bites down on the wire and keeps it firmly in place so it can't possibly move around.
Then the rest of the wiring is set up right here in this diagram. And it shows you exactly what you need to do with these little jumper cables that it gives you. They slide in…just like that. And one goes in there, and one goes in there. Bend them into place and then I will screw them into those little things like I did last time.
This is just a small sub panel shut off. You may or may not have one of these. My main concern is that I have enough wire. And it doesn't really look like I do. If you run into this problem, it's not a big deal. There's two lines, here and here, one's black - one's white and basically just put the black to the black and the white to the red. Or if yours is wired differently just put wherever your black came in put that to the black and wherever your white came in put that to the white. It's about that simple.
I'm convinced this is long enough, so I'm going to cut this here. I put the wire through the hole in the box and pull the wire out of the box.
This wire is my new wire that I have. This is 10 gauge. It is extremely, extremely, extremely important that you have the right gauge wire. This wire is going to come down here and it's going to reconnect to my hot water heater.
The next step in the instructions is to take the ones that go into the water heater and to connect them. Then tighten it up.
Now we have these two grounds that are here. All I'm going to do is grab a hold of both of them with my lineman's pliers. Get a good hold of them and twist them together. And then just make sure when you push this in that they don't touch any of the terminals.
And I'll go get the cover plate and we'll put it back together and turn it on.
If you're sick and tired of spending too much money on your energy bills. Stop by my website at www.howtohomeinsulation.com. You'll find the videos and information you need to start saving money on your energy bills, right now. My name's Corey Binford. Thanks for watching.