Water Heaters: Increase Your System’s Energy-Savings Potential
Next to cooling and heating your home, water heaters use the most energy. Lowering your water heating costs is one of the easiest ways to save energy, since you may not even notice any difference after you employ all or some of these tips to help you contain your water heating costs:
- Insulate your water heater with a blanket or jacket to cut the standby losses. If your heater is warm to the touch, you can save energy by insulating it. You’ll need to know the number of gallons your heater contains and its height. Follow the directions carefully, especially if your tank uses gas.
- Turn the temperature down to 120 degrees, especially if you’ve put an insulating blanket around it. Heating water at a lower temperature saves energy and also slows the development of hard water deposits in water heaters, which drives up the heating costs and wears the tanks out faster.
- Fix your leaky hot water faucets. If you have older shower heads, consider getting new low-flow devices that reduce the amount you use when showering. Showerhead flow rates changed in 1992. If yours are older than that, you’ll cut your costs with new water-saving shower heads. Putting new aerators on kitchen and bathroom faucets also lowers your hot water consumption.
- Use hot water sparingly when doing laundry. Today’s detergents work well in cold or warm water.
- Run your dishwasher only when it’s full. This appliance uses the same amount of water, no matter what the load size is.
- If your family uses the hot water at specific times during the day, consider a timer that cuts the standby losses considerably. Timers save substantial energy with electric water heaters and pilotless gas heaters.
If you’d like to learn more or would like assistance employing some of these tips, especially if you use gas for heating water, contact Sobieski Services.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Wilmington, Delaware and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC & plumbing systems).
Image Credit: kevin dooley
