Hot Water

In every household, the three biggest energy wasters are the heating and cooling unit, water heater and old house appliances. Of course, there are numerous ways you can significantly reduce your bills, thus helping your household budget. While, for instance, dealing with retaining the optimal temperature in your home is fairly easy – you can additionally insulate your property both from the outside as well as inside – hot water consumption is definitely trickier. That’s why we’ve prepared a few nifty tricks you can use to lower your hot water consumption. Read on to find out how.

Lower the temperature

The first, and probably the easiest way you can reduce your hot water bill is by turning down your tank’s thermostat. Most water heater thermostats come pre-set to 60°C, which is way too hot. If you don’t change the default setting, not only will your bill be significantly higher, but you’re also risking some burning accidents, especially if you have small children. That’s why it’s always better to set your thermostat on 40°C. In addition to creating a safer environment, this will reduce your bill by approximately 10%.

Reduce the use

It is estimated that the water use in an average household is 300 to 400 litres per capita each day. That’s almost the same amount of water a single person would consume in a three-year period. Sounds scary, doesn’t it? The first thing you can do, of course, is limit the showers to no more than 5 minutes, once a day, and avoid taking baths as much as possible. The second, and by far better option is to install faucet aerators and low-flow showerheads, which reduce hot water consumption by 20 to 60%. Of course, this doesn’t mean that after you install them, you should go back to taking an hour-long shower.

Make sure there are no leaks

No matter how silly this may sound, check your pipes. Leaky pipes can significantly pump up your water consumption, so make sure you inspect everything properly. You can check the “leak detector” on your meter to make sure everything’s ok. This tiny triangular dial is the flow indicator that moves whenever there’s water passing through pipes. If it’s standing still when all the faucets are turned off, you’re good. However, if it’s moving, that means that there is still some water movement even when the faucets are turned off. If that’s the case, you should immediately check your pipes for leaks. On the other hand, if you’re not skilled in this field, contacting a professional is the smartest way to go. For example, these Canberra-based hot water experts offer same-day service, which is excellent since leaky pipes should be taken care of as soon as you notice that there’s a problem.

Additional considerations

Once you implement the previously mentioned tricks to reduce the hot water consumption in your household, there are a few additional things you can do. For instance, don’t pre-wash your dishes before you load them into a dishwasher, but make sure you get a high-quality dishwasher that doesn’t require the dishes to be pre-rinsed. Actually, you will definitely benefit from purchasing high-quality appliances either way, as they are more durable, waste far less energy and are, thus, eco-friendlier. You can also additionally insulate your water heater to make sure that there’s no energy loss. Finally, as obvious as this may sound, avoid running hot water when you don’t actually need it.

As you can see, there are ways you can control hot water consumption in your household without sacrificing comfort or time efficiency. You just need to know where to look and you need to be ready to adjust your lifestyle accordingly. Also, keep in mind that the benefits of reducing hot water consumption are opulent, so making a few changes can only work in your favour.

About The Author

Article written by, Lillian Connors @lillian_connors Lillian constantly embarks on fresh #homeimprovement #greenliving #officedesign projects and spreads the word about them.