The resource-constraint energy sector faces an insatiable demand for energy, which necessitates improvements in efficiency. One key sector that has potential for savings is residential water heating, which makes up 32% of household energy. Previous studies have proven that with effective scheduling up to 29% savings can be achieved for a nominal consumption pattern. The model that was used to estimate the savings, calculates the energy usage for a given hot water consumption pattern and given heating schedule for a horizontally mounted water heater. This two-node model is used to aid user-informed scheduling and autoscheduling, but was developed as a black-box model, validating the energy and not the internal temperatures, which could be misleading. This paper evaluates the accuracy of the model by performing temperature measurements inside the horizontal electric water heater. Moreover, two aspects neglected by the model are investigated: The node state transfer usage threshold, and the inter-nodal thermal resistance. The results show that the model significantly underestimates the stratification that occurs naturally. This underestimation also severely affects the modelled energy consumption and hides limitations of the model, preferring a lower threshold and higher inter-nodal resistance. The results also show that Legionella growth in the EWH could be a concern despite a high set point.
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