Saver Tip - Keeping the Hot Water Hot
A couple of quick and simple tricks for keeping your hot water hot and saving some energy while you’re at it is to insulate your hot water heater and your hot water pipes.
A water heater insulation blanket will reduce the amount of heat escaping from the tank, help keep the water in the tank hot longer and reduce the amount of energy needed to heat the water. The blankets are relatively inexpensive at about $10-$25 USD for a kit, an installation can be done by anyone with half a brain in about half an hour, and when one considers that hot water heating can account for upwards of 20% of a home’s energy consumption, even a small reduction in thsi type of energy usage will represent some financial savings.
Here’s a link to a Water Heater Insulation Blanket offered by Home Depot to give you an idea of what you’re looking for, though these can be had at pretty much any hardware or home improvement store. And here’s a link to a tutorial at the DIYNetwork.com to provide some guidance in the actual installation.
Once you’ve got the heater wrapped up nice and snug, it’s time to look at the hot water pipes. There are different types of solutions available for insulating water pipes, but the kind that I prefer are the simple foam pipe-sleeves. These are foam tubes with a slit along one side and you simply cut them to the desired length and then slip them onto the piping.
How much of your piping you’re going to be able to insulate will depend on how much of the piping you can actually gain access to. If your home has a fully finished basement, chances are the only hot water pipes that are out in the open would be in the room where the tank is, possibly in the laundry room, etc. If, on the other hand, you’ve got a home with an unfinished basement or crawlspace, you’ll have easier access to more piping.
Here’s a link to another tutorial at DIYNetwork.com to help out with the pipe wrapping.
Finally, if you happen to use a wood stove in your home during the winter months, whatever flat space you have on the top of the stove can provide a much more energy-efficient way to get some hot water. In my own previous experiences with wood stove heating, I would keep 2-4 pots of water on top of the stove during the day.
I would leave one pot of water going just to evaporate, to help humidify the house. The other pots might have been used for part of a bath or into the kitchen sink when doing the dishes. Some folks will keep a kettle on the wood stove for their tea through the day. Just remember to keep some pot mitts close by because pots left on top of a wood stove can get seriously hot.
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