Tips for Helping Your Water Heater Save Power
Energy Saving Tips for Your Water Heater
by DonAmes
Right behind heating & cooling, the ol’ water heater can be the next major energy user in our homes. We need to pay attention to this hot energy user if we are serious about lowering our energy use and conserving power at home.
Growing up in my parents 900 sq ft home, the water heater was in a metal cabinet right between the refrigerator and stove. 30 gallons of hot water right in the middle of the kitchen, under the drain board, where you butter the bread and chop the pickles. For the most part, we never knew it was even there. However, there was one time, the ‘right in the middle of the kitchen’ water heater rusted through and sprang a leak – I think kitchen leaks are one reason most water heaters today are in the garage and not in the house. I think maybe my parents house would have been better off if the water heater was in the garage, except, there was no garage.
Now we need to talk about your electric or gas bill. If you have an electric water heater grab your electric bill - if you have a gas water heater, grab your gas bill. Hopefully, there is a bar graph on the bill that indicates usage over the last 12 months. Draw a horizontal line across the bar graph even with the shortest bar. Everything above the line, like the spikes during the winter or summer, is most likely your heating and cooling load. If you reduce your heating and cooling load, these spikes will not be so spikey in the future. Now, the solid lines below the horizontal line is your base load. Down here is your everyday, everything else power that is used about the same throughout the year. Down here is your water heater. If you can heat and use hot water more efficiently, the base line usage goes down. The short line on the graph gets shorter. That’s good.
How old is your water heater? Most water heaters have a 6 year warranty. Good sources tell me, if you pay more and get a 10 year warranty, you don’t necessarily get a better water heater, you just get a longer warranty. One thing for sure, if your water heater is 10 years old or more, start looking for pending problems like leaking and fluctuating temperature and lack of hot water.
Service: The best service you can do for your water heater is drain it once a year. Rinsing the sediment from the bottom of the heater will prolong its life and it’s efficiency. Turn off the water heater at the gas valve or the breaker box. Let the heater cool down. Shut the supply water line off, usually there is a shut off valve on the supply line on top of the heater. Attach a garden hose to the drain outlet valve and let the water flow. Oh, ya, turn the hot water on at the kitchen sink faucet so the draining procedure does not air lock.
Water temperature: Test show that the most efficient water temperature is 120 degrees. The hottest water I every tested at a home was 164 degrees. Do you have kids in the house? A water temperature over 140 degrees can burn skin. Get a large cup out of the cabinet and set it in the sink that is closest to the water heater location. Place a meat thermometer ( or similar ) in the cup and then run hot water in the cup until the water is as hot as it’s going to get. Over a several day period, by trail and retest, set your hot water at 120 degrees. You can adjust the temperature on both the electric models and the gas models yourself with the gas models being the easiest. If you do not feel comfortable adjusting an electric water heater temperature, find someone that can help you or call a plumber.
Insulation: Most water heaters in use today have a layer of insulation between the actual water tank and the outside shell. The basic fact is - a new water heater has better insulationthan the ten year old heater you are using today. Better insulation means less heat loss which means less cost. Some water heaters will have a label attached that says the heater is already insulated and you should not add more insulation to the exterior. I think it’s a good, energy saving measure, to wrap the outside of the heater with a blanket of insulation. This can be done safely if you keep the insulation away from the bottom and top openings on a gas water heater and if you mark the element openings on an electric water heater. If the manufacture says – do not insulate further - then you should take his word for it, not mine. The water lines, both hot and cold, that run from the tank and disappear into the wall somewhere, should be insulated with a good foam tube insulation. These foam pipe covers are available at your favorite hardware store.
Less Power Scotty:Water heaters have taken a noticeable jump in technology in the past year. In fact, energystar.gov does not even list your basic electric water heater. On the market now are heat pump water heaters and condensing gas water heaters. Both take at least a 30% jump in efficiency. The heat pump water heater has this little heat pump sitting on top of the tank and can provide household hot water at nearly half the cost. In the market for a new water heater, check out the energystar qualified models.
Hope you have enjoyed this article on water heaters and hope you’ll come back soon. DonAmes, more at detectenergy.com