Water Heaters and What You Can Do To Save Energy

Water heaters are invaluable to a home, but they can also be a source of frustration when the monthly electric bill shows up in the mail. Thankfully, there are things you can do to cut down on some of your costs. While this may include finding a more energy efficient appliance, there are plenty of tips you can use without going to those extremes. Just by making a few simple changes in your home, you may find that you can cut down on your hot water costs dramatically, saving yourself some of the headache you feel on bill paying day.

Blanket

No, this is not to advise you to cover up with a blanket after taking a cold shower. Rather, you can purchase a special blanket sold to cover water heaters. Sometimes they are called jackets, and they perform just about how you would think. You wrap them around the appliance and it keeps the water inside insulated. This ensures that you are not losing heat from that water when it is being stored. One of the advantages to tankless appliances is that they don't heat the water until you ask for it. Traditional tanks, however, keep that water heated all the time. A jacket or blanket can make the job easier and save you some money.

Reduce Use

It seems simple, but there are few better ways to save on energy than to reduce your use of hot water to begin with. Water heaters will not cost you a lot of money on your monthly bill if you start taking shorter showers, fix leaky faucets, and turn off the faucet when you shave. These are things that can seem like major inconveniences when you start implementing them. However, once you do it for a month, and you see the difference it makes in your bill, you might see that it is quite worth it.

Energy Efficient Appliances

Let's face it: in many households the majority of hot water use comes not from shaving and showering, but rather from appliances like the dishwasher and washing machine. If you run these appliances frequently, the bill can add up quickly. One solution is to replace your old models with new, energy efficient models. The best of these are tagged with an Energy Star label and you may even qualify for discounts and incentives for buying them. Do they smash through the job like the old models? Not necessarily, but once you get used to them, you'll find that you don't really miss the energy vampires of old.