We’ve been trying to lower our energy consumption but it keeps on rising monthly. Just a few days ago we finally were able to log in to our tepco account and found out that our power surge (up to 1.8 kWh) happens from midnight. How long does it usually take for the eco cute to charge and heat up? Is this even normal?
4 comments
Yes, I think most are setup with the assumption that you’ll have an electric plan that has cheaper rates at night, so they will start to heat up water after midnight. Ours holds quite a lot of water so if it is heating up to the max it will take a few hours, perhaps midnight to 3 or even 4 am (although it’s been a while since I took a look in detail).
Check what providers in your area offer night time discounts. For me, the only one was 出光電気 where they charge like ¥26 flat and ¥17 between 1am and 6am so you would want your eco cute to heat up during that time.
We set our Eco One (like an Eco Cute, but gas hybrid, so it uses gas when the tank is empty instead of electricity) to heat up during the day when our solar panels are producing.
You can set the general time span when the heatpump runs. Mine can only do night time. I think it’s because they were asked by power companies to run at a time when there is excess power. The problem is that apparently below 4 degrees the heat pump is less efficent, so it uses more power. Might be a problem with my unit, but it does get really loud when it’s cold.
I switched my powerplan to be cheap from 21:00-07:00, so I changed the set time on the device. Optimally it would just run right at 21:00 until it’s full, but I have to press a button manually for that and it doesn’t seem to stop either. There is a holiday setting on these things to save power, but it says not to use it in freezing temperatures.