I only turn on my hot water heater 20 minutes before bathing or washing dishes. I live in a single level house with circuit breakers. I simply flip off the circuit breaker to the hot water heater and flip it back on about 20 minutes before I need to use hot water. This is an amazing electricity saver. Of course I would not recommmend this for those with basements or fuse boxes.... They also make timers if you are able to pay to have one installed or have someone to do that for you. For now I just flip ...