Water Heater Timer at the Panel?

[MarkP]

I am often away from home for days at a time. When I leave I always turn off the water heater. If I get home the next day the water is still pretty warm. The day after and it is luke warm Three days and it is cold. That's like wasting a whole tank every three days. In fact it is worse than that because the rate of heat loss goes down as the temperature goes down. Keeping your tank hot really costs you. On the other hand to see a savings you must keep the tank off as much as possible. Can you shut off the power in the morning, after you shower? That would give you the greatest amount of down time, instead of just overnight. Better yet, shut it off just before you shower and use up the hot water in the tank, so it is not wasting energy heating a tank that will only sit all day.