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Water Heater Blanket

Last year I put a blanket on the water heater. It is made from a radiant barrier product that is basically bubble wrap with aluminum foil on both sides. It is R-6 I think and I used it on some other projects and had a bunch left over so I made the blanket. (One of the other projects I did was to take a car seat heater/massager that you can find at Kohles for $20-$30 dollars that the heater element shorted out and used scrap pieces as a replacements for the seat and back. It is working pretty well. Of course it doesn't heat up but it reflects enough body heat that even on those freezing mornings within a few minutes my butt and back are pretty warm.) Anyway, I was over at my buddy Andy's house the other day and he asked how it was working. So this weekend I took our indoor/outdoor weather station downstairs and slipped the outdoor sensor inside the blanket and put the station a few feet beside it for the room temp. Room temp 65.3. Inside temp 82.4. I don't remember enough thermodynamics to know how much energy that is saving if the water heater is set at 120 degrees, but a 17 degree difference seems pretty good to me. Anyone out there put one of the fiberglass blankets around your water heater? If so, what kind of difference do you see?

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