SteveQ said:'Lou Apo' timestamp='1365125428' post='193756']How about this. Put a "T" fitting on your hot water tank outlet. Thread the T fitting in with the long axis up and down so you have a straight shot into the tank from the top. Use the side port for your water to the house. Use the top port to thread that thermometer. A solar powered manual gauge is not quite what I was looking for. I wanted something that I could connect to my home automation system. I can manually measure the water temperature by opening the sillcock about 3feet from the water heater and sticking a thermometer in the outflow. Installing a tee fitting on the top of my water heater is a major issue; a lot of soldering would be required. I don't really need to know the temperature, do I? Steve Q
Lou Apo said:Perhaps your tank sitting in an ice cold garage is different. I had never seen a tank in a garage until I moved to Texas. Garages around here almost never see temps below 50 and even that is rare. Of course in the summer the garage can be over 100 which pretty much means the tank would take forever to cool off, and even then it wouldn't get below 100. In my old house, (NG in garage tank), my NG bill was like $5 for gas and then another $10 just for the privilege of being connected during the summer.