Heat Up Your Savings with Our Hot Water Heater Tips

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, hot water heaters consume between 14 and 25 percent of a home’s total energy use, and are the third largest energy expense in your house (behind the refrigerator and clothes dryer.) Here are some ways you can help cut your home’s energy usage, and save money, by improving the performance of your hot water heater.

First, if you have an electric water heater, consider switching to gas. According to national average fuel costs, gas hot water heaters cost half as much to use. They do cost more to purchase, but they net you 50% energy savings from the moment you start using one, earning back the difference in purchase price in less than a year.

However, if you can’t or would rather not, replace your electric hot water heater with gas, there are other ways to help reduce the energy drain from hot water heaters.

Insulate
Start by considering insulation. How do you know if your hot water heater should be insulated? There’s an easy way to tell. Touch the outside – if it’s warm to the touch, it needs some insulation. There are a variety of products on the market—like hot water heater blankets that can be custom cut to fit—to do this job. However, if you have a gas hot water heater, it’s very important to remember not to insulate the top or the bottom. The airflow cannot be obstructed in any way and the thermostat must remain uncovered. Most homeowners with gas hot water heaters opt to call in home heating experts or contractors to properly and safely insulate their gas hot water heater.

Also, insulate your hot water pipes with pipe insulation wrap, especially the pipes within three feet of your heater and the cold water inlet pipe for those same three feet. (However, if you have a gas hot water heater, make sure the pipe insulation stops at least six inches from the flue.) Insulating all your hot water pipes can raise the temperature of the water they carry by four degrees.

Evaluate Your Hot Water Habits
Another way to cut costs is to examine your hot water usage and make some changes. First, you might need to install low flow shower heads. A great way to assess this is to place a one gallon bucket in your tub, turn on the shower full force, and see how long it takes to fill the bucket. If it takes less than twenty seconds to collect one gallon, you need a low flow shower head.

Also, if you don’t already, consider washing all your laundry in cold water or at least never set the temperature dial on your washer higher than the “warm” setting. Your clothes and household linens will be every bit as clean as if you used hot water, especially if you use one of the many cold water laundry detergents available. Nice upsides to cool water washing are that your wardrobe will retain brighter colors longer and the material will shrink less.

Another habit to change is to switch from tub baths to showers, at least the majority of the time. Baths typically use twice the amount of hot water as showers.

More Helpful Fixes
In addition to altering your water usage habits, there are some devices available that can also help you save on your hot water bill. If you have an electric hot water heater, consider installing a timer that turns it off at night or when you’re out of town. (Timers don’t work with gas hot water heaters because of the pilot light.)

You can also install heat traps on the pipes that lead to and away from your hot water heater. Heat traps are loops of pipe that allow water to flow into your hot water heater, but stop unwanted flows of hot water back out. Heat traps have to be soldered to the inlet and outlet pipes, so this might be a job for your local plumbing contractors.

Finally, you can consider replacing an old, inefficient, poorly insulated hot water heater with a new model. A good rule of thumb is that if your hot water heater is ten years old, it has lost half of its energy efficiency (or even more) and you will save money and energy by replacing it. Also, this year, you could save tax money. If you replace an old hot water heater in your primary residence with a new one that has a thermal efficiency of at least 90% or an energy factor greater than .82, you will qualify for a Federal Tax Cut of 30% of the cost, up to $1500, if you install the new water heater before December 31, 2010.

If you’re looking to save money and reduce your energy usage, your hot water heater is an excellent place to start..

Article Source: http://www.diyarticlelibrary.com

Wesley Holm, President of Thompson Plumbing Heating & Cooling, a Cincinnati-based plumbing, heating and air-conditioning company that offers the best service in the Greater Cincinnati area.

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