Electric Storage Hot Water Systems range in sizes from 25 litres up to 400 litres. They are a very common type of hot water heater and are in a very high percentage of Sunshine Coast and Brisbane homes, they are simple in design that has been around for a long time and relatively economical to install, but they have become quite expensive to run, especially with the cost of power sky rocketing and continuing to rise.

• There are only a few companies that actually manufacture hot water heaters in Australia for their Electric hot water system range-
  • Rheem Hot Water Systems, which also own and manufacture the following brands:
    • AquaMAX Hot Water Systems
    • Vulcan Hot Water Systems
    • Everhot hot water heaters which is an exclusive for Reece Plumbing supplies stores
    • Rheem Stellar hot water systems are what the call their premium stainless steel range
  • Dux Hot Water systems also have the following brands under its banner:
    • Radiant Hot Water Systems
    • Therman Electric water heaters are made for Reece Plumbing Supplies stores
    • Dux Proflo hot water systems is what they call their standard range that you will find in Bunnings stores
  • Rinnai Hot Water Systems have started  manufacturing in Victoria, but they do import from China a vast number of their systems to keep up with the demand
    • Rinnai call their standard electric hot water range the HotFlo

There are also the dreaded cheap Chinese imports like Thermalec and previously before they removed them from Australia Bosch and Kelvinator supplied some electric hot water heaters to the Australian market. Saxon was a big player in the Queensland hot water market,but they were very inefficient and very expensive to run, they unfortunately ceased trading in around 2011

Everyone should be mindful of the cheap imported systems starting to appear in the Australian Hot Water Market, the assurance of a good lasting hot water system will live much longer than a few bucks in the wallet, remember the saying you get what you pay for, definitely applies here.

Many residential units will have a 50L or 80L electric model in the kitchen, laundry or a cupboard. They are fine for 1-2 people, but you will need to be mindful of having a limited hot water supply. If you have enough space or a bigger household, a 125L or 160L system will provide you with more hot water and will cost very little more to maintain the volume. Most 3 to 4 bedroom houses would or should have, 250L, 315L or even the big one, a 400L models. Usually these larger electric hot water systems are connected to off-peak electricity supply which gives a slightly cheaper rate of electricity. Off peak supply is only available in times of low energy use – usually the middle of the night, heating and storing your water for use the next day.

Most brands also have a twin element option, generally the bottom element is connected to a “off peak” power source and the top element connect to tarif 11 (continuous 24hr power) and the top portion of tank temperature is maintained, these are good for when there is a high demand. These systems to work like this will require 2 active wires from the switch board, changing a single element to a twin element is sometimes not a easy upgrade because of this.

Unfortunately if you don’t have a off peak power relay and meter in your switch board already it can come at a high cost, we have heard of cases where Energex are quoting $800 to $2000 to do this after its prewired by a electrical contractor, so getting cheaper power you may have to pay a upfront cost that really doesnt make sense in installing an electric hot water system when Solar and Heat Pump hot water heaters would cost around the same money and have a lower running cost.