How Water Heaters
How Water Heaters
Let’s Talk Water Heaters
by Dale Y the Green Guy
Water heaters are some of the biggest energy wasters in your house or home. It takes loads of energy to heat up cold water that is piped into your hot water heating tank. On a rough average, one person uses between 10 and 20 dollars per month in hot water. That total is variable, of course, but it is pretty close. Add in a spouse and a couple of kids, and you are looking at somewhere between 40 to 80 bucks every month just to heat up water, and that’s on average.
The biggest culprits are long hot showers and small hot laundry loads. Let’s face it, throwing a pair of jeans and a shirt into a laundry tub filled with hot water will certainly get them clean all right, but it will also certainly drive up the energy bill as well.
Although there is no way to stop hot water usage, unless you like cold showers, here are a few tips to limit the energy you use to heat up all that water, and save a few bucks in the process.
Get a water heater blanket, This is the easiest and most cost effective way to save some energy and a little money. These blankets are available at hardware and department stores everywhere, they are relatively inexpensive, and they’ll shave a buck or two off your bill every week.
Install low flow faucet aerators and low flow shower heads. You won’t use as much water, but everything will get just as clean. There’s another buck off the bill per week.
Lower the thermostat. Yes, everyone likes a good hot shower, but if your thermostat is higher than 120 degrees, you are wasting energy. Every 10 degrees is about 2 bucks per week in savings, so lower the thermostat and save.
Limit shower time to 3 minutes or less. All of you here at Detect Energy know that The Green Guy—and Jennifer Aniston—take 3 minute showers. We both get just as clean doing this, and savings can range from 1 to 5 bucks per week, depending on how many showers you take.
For the long term, get a new hot water heater if it is 7 years old or older. Better still, get an Energy Star water heater which will save about 15% off your current yearly bill. Better than that, get a tank-less hot water heater system that heats water on demand. You’ll save 30% off your current water heating bill with this method. But best of all, go solar. Depending upon where you live, you can save between 30% and 80%, possibly more, off of your hot water bill. Although you will pay more for these systems, the savings overall make them well worth it in every way.
Hey, I love having hot water just like everyone else, but I don’t like paying for it. So use these tips wisely, as I do, to limit your hot water use, save a bit of energy and keep a little scratch left over in your bank account.