Conserve Hot Water - it's expensive

My suggestion is to try your best to conserve hot water. It's really much more expensive than cold water.

If you think about it, most of us have a big tank in our homes that heats water and stores it until we use it. Have you ever seen the flames on the bottom of a hot water tank? They put a gas stove burner to shame.

There is some serious flame coming out of the burner at the bottom of a tank style water heater, so that makes hot water expensive.

In the case of an electric water heater, you can hear the resistance heaters inside the tank. That should also give us an idea of how much energy is used to heat water.

Therefore, let's try to conserve hot water whenever we can. Here are some suggestions:

• Don't run water (hot or cold) while you clean up the kitchen. It doesn't help you clean up, and it's especially expensive and wasteful if what you're running is hot water.
• Many dishes can be washed in cold water. If they're not greasy, there is no reason to use even warm water.
• Shorten up your shower.
• Take a warm shower instead of a hot one.
• Wash clothes in cold water.
• Be brave and wash your hands in cold water. It won't hurt them at all.

It's rare that I wash clothes or dishes in heated water. I find that nearly everything comes clean enough in cold water. I'm even going to valve in a cold water line to my dishwasher that allows me to wash dishes (and other items) in cold water.

My late friend Eric used to shower in cold water. I didn't believe him at first. One day he was showering at my house so I turned off one of the valves on my water heater. He kept right on showering as if nothing had happened, and he never said a word to me.

He hadn't noticed at all! He really did shower in cold water. He was a tougher man than I'll ever be.

Done with Conserve Hot Water, back to Ways to Save Energy