Question: Consider a 2-m-high electric hot-water heater that has a diameter of 40 cm and maintains the hot water at 60°C. The tank is located in a small room at 20°C whose walls and ceiling are at about the same temperature. The tank is placed in a 44-cm-diameter sheet metal shell of negligible thickness, and the space between the tank and the shell is filled with foam insulation. The average temperature and emissivity of the outer surface of the shell are 40°C and 0.7, respectively. The price of electricity is $0.08/kWh. Hot-water tank insulation kits large enough to wrap the entire tank are available on the market for about $60. If such an insulation is installed on this water tank by the home owner himself, how long will it take for this additional insulation to pay for itself? Disregard any heat loss from the top and bottom surfaces, and assume the insulation to reduce the heat losses by 80 percent.
