Reducing Your Water Heater Energy Use: Smart Tips That Work

Are you overwhelmed by high energy bills? The reason could be your water heater especially those who own the conventional storage type of water heater. Here is the thing, you water heart is designed to constantly keep the water hot and ready every time you need it.  However before using the water, your water will naturally cool. This forces the burner to start the whole heating process again. This repetitive cycle will easily lead to overuse of energy and eventually high bills. Here is what you can do to make your heater more energy efficient. 

Minimize Your Use of Hot Water If You Can. One easy way to cut energy costs is to use less hot water. It is estimated that a family of eight that showers after every ten minutes a day will use about 700 gallons of water a week. Do the math for one year and assume every one of them uses hot water. Well don’t go there. Simply reduce on your use of hot water. Here are a few simple tips that you can use.

·           Install low-flow showerheads.

·           Use hot water only when you have to.

·          Wash your laundry/ dishes when full to capacity. 

You Can Turn Down your Tank’s Thermostat. Most water heater come at 140 degrees. This causes high risks of scalding. But study shows that for every 10 degrees a thermostat is turned down one saves up to 5% of their energy bill.  Lowering it to 120 degrees is therefore highly recommended. At 120 degrees mineral build up will be highly reduced. Here is how to turn your thermostat down. 

·         Use a thermometer to measure the exact water temp.

·         Keep it away from the heating source while measuring.

·         If the temp is same as that on the thermostat proceed.

·         Turn your thermostat down to 120⁰ – give 2hours and confirm. 

Take Time to Drain the Sediments from Tank. Tanks will build up sediments and yours is no exception. Sediment build up reduces efficiency. This makes saving energy a huge challenge. So perform a frequent care and maintenance schedule as this will help to keep the tank running efficiently and performing at its best. Do this by periodically draining your tank. Here is how to drain your tank. 

·         Set the burner to pilot if you are using gas unit

·         Turn off the water and power that supplies the unit.

·         Take a garden hose and connect to the spigot (base of the tank).

·         Point the next end of the pipe to the floor drain.

·         Turn the tanks spigot and release the tanks pressure relief valve.

 When your hot water sits for a long time without use it naturally cools down. This process is referred to as standby heat loss. Few people really know about it even though it is one of the major causes of high energy bills in our homes. Use experts to fix this for you. I have used the expert plumbing and drain cleaning in Jersey City NJ and they did a great job for me.