I think you have a grundfos recirculation pump.
This is not a water heater timer.
For illustration of grundfos system, open link below.
http://waterheatertimer.org/Water-heater-recirculation-system.htmlRecirculation system is electric, but it also causes gas water heater to run more.
Unplug grundfos for a couple months to see if gas bill goes down. Your system will revert to regular water heater.
Many things can cause high gas bill. Make inventory of gas-consuming appliances: dryer, oven, stove, heater, water heater. Then inventory how often these appliances are used. Each appliance has a label with BTU listed. Add up BTUs of all appliances and compare with BTUs shown on gas bill. Call gas company about how to cut back.
Gas water heaters can become inefficient. So can any gas appliance. Look at flame inside water heater when it turns on. If flame is yellow instead of clear blue, that indicates the water heater is inefficient, and burner needs to be cleaned, or heater needs replacement or maintenance.
Call plumber for assessment and then post a question on the Tank to double check anything plumber says:
http://www.thetankatwaterheaterrescue.com/forums/forum3/More information about circulation system:
Notice that illustrations show a pump located under the sink.
It sounds like you have same pump located at water heater.
Both types are same thing.
The purpose is to circulate hot water to your faucet so you don't have to wait for hot water when turning faucet ON. Instead, you have to wait for cold water.
The timer located on grundfos dial determines when pump turns ON.
Link above has illustration showing how to set timer pins using your thumb or ink pin or nail file (women know nail files, so I'm relating here).
To set timer, rotate dial until current time lines up with mark. The dial rotates as time passes and has to be reset after power outage.
If dial does not rotate, then timer is broken, but it sounds like pump is still working, and running full time which is wasteful.
Next, move the pins to set on-off times. Move pins inward, the pump is ON. Pins outward, pump is off.
For more exciting reading about the grundfos:
http://waterheatertimer.org/pdf/Grundfos-L-UP-TL-043-install-photos.pdf
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