The average homeowner can use these home energy saving tips and conservation ideas to improve the overall energy efficiency of their storage tank water heater and reduce water heating costs. Unfortunately many homeowners don’t pay attention to their water heater until it stops working.
A little do it yourself maintenance will go a long way to improving efficiency, which provides energy savings. These home energy saving tips and conservation ideas will also extend the life of your storage tank water heater.
5 Home Energy Saving Tips
1. Consider purchasing a water heater blanket. These blankets are fairly inexpensive, easy to install and provide an extra layer of insulation. An insulation blanket can reduce the cost of water heating by about 10%. So consider wrapping it up.
2. Insulate the hot water pipes that exit your storage tank, especially the first 4 or so feet. Hot water pipe insulators are essentially foam and rubber split tubes that are inexpensive and very easy to install. Don’t forget to choose the right size to ensure a firm fit around your pipes.
3. If you have an electric model consider installing an automatic timer. They cost anywhere from $35 to $40 and can be set to automatically turn off your water heater when you go to work or sleep. And you can program the timer to turn it back on an hour or so before you awake or return home.
4. If you’re going to be away from home for a few days don’t forget to turn off your water heater. If it’s electric you can simply turn off the proper breaker switch. If it’s powered by natural gas, turn off only the water heater and not the natural gas supply to the unit. This will allow you to simply switch the water heater back on without reigniting or relighting the pilot light.
5. Drain your storage tank once a year. This removes efficiency robbing grime or sediments that eventually build up along the bottom of the tank. This is a fairly straight forward do it yourself project. Contact the manufacture and they can provide detailed step by step instructions.
Take these steps and reduce your water heating costs while breathing new life into your storage tank unit. It’s important to note that there are other home energy saving tips and conservation ideas that if implemented will also reduce your water heating costs.
