Getting Into Hot Water

My greatest challenge here has been to understand the water heater.

1) There are several switches to turn it on: one for the unit and one for the unit that programmes it.

2) Whilst English is spoken here, it is entirely a different language from that which is spoken in the U.S. The term off-peak programming, would imply when you didn’t need the water heater to be working so hard.

3) There are day rates and night rates for electricity (and you get to shop for which electric supplier you want to use, even in an apartment building).

When I first moved in, I didn’t know the second switch was for turning on the water heater. I figured the thermostat did that and I had its lights all twinkly. 24 hours of traveling to get a cold shower. After looking it over and dinking around, I really fouled it up. This last weekend I was using the tea kettle to heat water so I could do dishes. And I was cooking so there were a lot of dishes. Then I was getting cold showers in the morning and lukewarm baths at night. I sought out and downloaded (thank God for the Internet!) the instructions for the thermostat. Off peak programming was for scheduling when you wanted the puppy to be cranking away and heating the water, at the cheap night rates, so you had a hot shower in the morning and a little boost (if you wanted it) for evening dishes and baths at night. I just did their magic RESET combination of buttons and all is right with the world.