System and method for dry fire protection in electric water heaters

A water heater control method for controlling a water heater having a water storage tank, at least one electrical heating element extending within the water storage tank, a power switch electrically coupled to the at least one electrical heating element, a user input interface configured to receive input from the user requesting power to be applied to the at least one electrical heating element, a user output interface configured to output an indicator indicating that the controller is inhibiting operation of the at least one electrical heating element, a temperature sensor for sensing a temperature of the water storage tank, and a controller electrically coupled to the power switch, the control method including:

• storing in a non-volatile memory device, by the controller, data including a number of heating cycles completed by the at least one electrical heating element to heat water in the water storage tank,
• controlling, by the controller, the power switch to turn OFF power to the at least one electrical heating element in response to the number of heating cycles stored in the memory being less than a predetermined threshold number of heating cycles, and controlling the user output interface to output the indicator indicating that the controller is inhibiting operation of the at least one electrical heating element, and
• controlling, by the controller, the power switch to turn ON power to the at least one electrical heating element in response to:
• 1) receiving user input through the user input interface requesting power to be applied to the at least one electrical heating element, and 2) the sensed temperature of the water storage tank being less than a desired setpoint temperature.