The dishwasher is from 1996. If you guys would stop helping me fix it each time it breaks, we could get a new one.
[DrewCarey] "Oh, why didn't you say so?" [/DrewCarey] Here, cut this out and tape to its door:
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"Al, it looks like [-]REWahoo!'s[/-] the timer switch is bad. The only way you're going to fix this problem is to buy a new EnergyStar [-]longboard[/-] dishwasher. Maybe the local electrical utility has a rebate program, too!"
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If i had a big enough water heater to provide enough hot water to me and my family, I'd just set it to a comfortable temperature too. But as i mentioned earlier, apparently my tank is too small because if "we" run pure hot for all of us back to back, it occasionally runs out. Setting it hotter and mixing in cold seems to alleviate the problem.
A couple comments here:
1. Have you looked into a water-heater blanket and an outlet heat trap?
2. If the water heater is over 10 years old then you can buy a high-efficiency model in a bigger capacity with a blanket and an outlet heat trap... you'll probably pay lower utility bills, you won't run out of hot water, and your water heater might qualify for a rebate from your local utility.
3. Two people showering together use less water than each showering individually. But if you're married then it's probably best to confine this practice to your spouse.
4. Different shower times for everyone?
.... which makes me wonder, what's most cost effective; Buying a huge tank and setting it to 115 or a smaller one and jacking it up to 130+?
In this case it's approximated as the number of joules of energy that you can cram into the tank. The significant factor here, the difference in absolute Fahrenheit temperature, is only 15 degrees out of (459+115=) 574 or about 2.6%.
The "effective curve" probably looks like a "U": high at one end for a modern tankless water heater, and high at the other end for a larger heavily-insulated high-efficiency conventional water heater. You lose some garage space with the big tank but it probably has at least 20% more volume and will outlast even your teenage water buffalo.