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Save Money By Improving
Hot Water Usage
By Rick Chappo
Nobody likes cold showers, particularly early in
the morning. Take the following steps, however, and you can save serious cash on
your water heating costs.
To the surprise of many, heating water is the biggest energy expense in the
typical home. Most people think the highest cost is heating or cooling the
interior air, but this simply is not true. Fortunately, taming your energy use
for water heating is fairly simple if you take some basic steps.
One of the reasons heating water is such a big expense has to do with time.
Simply put, your water heat works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a
year. When you wake up in the morning and take a shower, the water heater fires
up to keep enough hot water in the tank. Obviously, this is necessary. What is
not necessary, however, is the number of times the tank fires up during the day
when everyone is at school or work. How about at 2 in the morning when everyone
is asleep? When your water heater uses energy to keep the pool of water in the
tank hot during these periods, it is a pure waste of energy and unnecessary
expense on your utility bill.
To defeat this problem, there are two basic steps you should consider. The
first is to go with a solar water heater. Unlike solar panels systems for your
entire home, water heater are much smaller and more efficient. They produce
plenty of hot water throughout the day, so you should be fine. If you take a lot
of baths and showers, they can be supplemented with electrical power drawn from
the utility company. Even if this happens, you are still using far less utility
power than before. The other alternative is to go with a tankless system. These
on demand water heaters are more efficient because they do not use energy to
heat water in the middle of the night or during other off hour periods. Look for
an Energy Star rating to get the most efficient model.
There are other practical steps you can take to cut buck on your energy use
without changing your water usage. First, turn down the thermostat on your water
heater to 115 degrees. Second, insulate your water heater with a pad you can buy
at any home improvement store. Third, insulate the pipes carrying the hot water.
Fourth, replace all faucets with low flow products. Fourth, take showers instead
of baths – the water usage is much less.
The average residence in the United States uses more than 700 gallons of
water a week. Making minor changes to your energy use can go a long way.
About the Author: Rick Chapo is with
http://www.solarcompanies.com a directory of solar energy companies.
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