The thing I don't like with our present system is going outside and hearing the system running, mid afternoon, at peak rate heating up water for a shower the next morning!

Our off peak rate is 11.9 cents and the peak rate is 47.7 and I see this as an incentive to only run it at night, or at least, stop it running during the peak rate time.

Harold

Since you are on a time-of-use tariff it may well be worth doing then. As far as I know it is not illegal to put a water heater on a timer. They are fixed appliances though so it'd have to be done by an electrician. Once installed it's just a matter of setting it to heat only during the off-peak portion of the day.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

Once installed it's just a matter of setting it to heat only during the off-peak portion of the day.

... and remembering to reset it after blackouts.

"all this DIN rail rubbish"

Have not seen these (fortunately) . Will look out for your pic's of historic breakers.

"310 litres of hot water and only 2 in the house"

Also some wound up to high temp for Aussie Legionnaire's Law. (could be set lower/modified? if you are the owner and thought legislation a bit excessive)

When we had teenagers at home, we found that no storage system tank was big enough. Also Canberra's sub-zero nights meant significant heat loss. I could walk past the tank at night and feel the head radiating off it - heat I had paid for being enjoyed only by the local possums.

We switched to instantaneous gas and chucked the tank. Much better economics, and we can adjust the water temperature from inside the house, according to the season. Cold water through cold pipes takes more gas than tepid water through tepid pipes.

Off-peak is really only attractive for big heat-storage systems like under-floor slab heating.

Maven

Off-peak is really only attractive for big heat-storage systems like under-floor slab heating.

I agree.

When I was growing up in a family of 5, the off-peak water tank in the roof often ran cold and we had to wait for the next cycle.

If I had the option, I'd go for instantaneous gas every time.

Those roof tanks held about 500 litres of water and had elements about three foot long in them. They were poorly insulated and were pretty much the first generation of off-peak hot water heaters.

The problem with them was that the county councils had no control over them and they relied on a timer, set by the council, to come on only once a day for a few hours.

When the timers were ripped out in the late 1980s and replaced with remote controlled ripple counters this problem was sorted to a degree because everyone's elements were turned on remotely at several different times of the day - pretty much when there was low electricity demand.

heat I had paid for being enjoyed only by the local possums.

Yes, every time I see one of these tanks they are covered in jelly beans.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

NewVista,

This is a DIN rail switchboard. All the circuit breakers and any other equipment mount on a pressed metal bar screwed to the enclosure just by clipping on. I think it's a European concept and probably goes back about 30 years for industrial applications.

In this photo is a main switch at the left which kills everything, followed by MCB circuit breakers for the range and water heater then RCD circuit breakers for three power circuits and a lighting circuit. A timer for the hall light finishes things off and is in use when I am away to give the place a lived-in look from outside.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

"DIN rail switchboard"

Looks rather nice, don't know how rugged and reliable. DIN [Deutsches Institut für Normung] standard not surprising given Clipsal's European parent Co.

Siemens is also big on the DIN, their Energy & Automation subsidiary is just west of me in old Allis Chalmers plant and to my east is their competition, Rockwell Automation in what was Allan Bradley complex!

Both Clipsal and HPM have been making this sort of stuff for a very long time. Their French parent companies, Schneider and Legrand respectively, are fairly new to Australia and sadly under the globalisation umbrella their Australian factories, which were huge in their day, are gone - most of the product we use here now comes from China and the action quality of switches and the general fit and finish often falls well below what we were making for ourselves ten years ago.

Most industrial control gear fits into a DIN rail now. The timer that WA2ISE has shown here is suitable for a DIN rail. Other gear includes HRC fuse blocks, time delay relays, contactors, auto/manual switches, indicator lamps and other types of timers.

Once these two companies lead the world in quality and design and they exported to numerous countries but as subsidiaries of European based multinationals these priorities have become less important I think.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

Here's a picture of another brand 240v socket I have on transformer box. This one is Hubbell brand (c.1930s?) in contrast to the Leviton in post #1.

Next to it I have I have ~100 yr-old T-slot socket with ornate bakelite cover plate. On wall I have 1940s outlet with ivory Deco plate because I like old fashioned and eschew safety earth.

Interesting...

I was under one of the buildings where I work and at the time I found a switch plate with the same pattern as the one pictured above, bottom right. On the back it was stamped "made in the USA". This would be a fairly rare thing as local manufacturing here was quite strong at the time and there were import restrictions on most manufactured goods. Most importing freedom was given to companies based within the British Empire.

I am sure I still have this plate on my desk so I'll grab a photo tomorrow.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...