Patent ID: 8867908

Claim:
A hot water heater comprising: a tank for storing water; one or more heating elements for selectively applying heat to the water in the tank; and a control system comprising a controller for controlling the one or more heating elements and one or more devices to collect water usage data, said controller being configured to automatically self-program control of the hot water heater to reduce energy consumption of the hot water heater based on the usage data, wherein the controller is configured to: selectively operate in a learning mode to build a statistical table representing a hot water usage profile using a learning algorithm responsive to input at a user interface during operation of the hot water heater; determine a first time period of predicted hot water usage based at least in part on the hot water usage profile, the first time period being associated with a first energy price tier; and control the one or more heating elements so as to heat the water in the tank at a second time period prior to the first time period, the second time period being associated with a second energy price tier lower than the first energy price tier.