Hot water heating - save money & the environment

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About 30% of the energy used in your house goes toward producing hot water, so it's one of the best places you can start making real greenhouse friendly changes.
Basically there are three ways to reduce the amount of energy used to heat water

Use less water
Use cooler water
Improve the efficiency of your hot water heating system.

The easiest & most effective change?

Consider replacing your hot water heater
Solar energy is ideally suited for heating hot water. It doesn't produce any greeenhouse gases and can deliver about 50 - 90% of your hot water needs - free!

Yes, the up front costs are higher, but you'll find many government rebates are available to offset some of the initial cost. When you take these into account along with the savings on your energy bills, you should find that the solar system has paid for itself within about 5 years. After that you get most of your water free of charge.

I say most, because although a solar system can greatly reduce your hot water heating costs it can't completely eliminate them. You still need either a gas or electric booster system to maintain a consistent, comfortable temperature 24 hours a day. The most efficient hot water heating units available today are gas boosted solar systems.

Heat Pump Water Heaters
Another interesting unit to consider is the heat pump hot water system. These units work by extracting heat from the air and using it to heat water. It uses the same type of technology as a refrigerator, but in reverse.

It's interesting that the air they draw their heat from doesn't have to actually be hot - as long as the air temperature is above absolute zero (-276°C!) there will be enough heat for the heat pump to use. Amazing!

Both solar & heat pump systems have the potential to save around 4 tonnes of CO₂ per year and greatly reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Apart from that you'll obviously save a chunk of money off your energy bills (around $400 on average in Australia).

Other tips to reduce the cost & energy wasted on hot water

Use less water

Switch your shower head to a low flow model and you'll use up to 50% less water. These models use techniques like injecting air into the water stream so that you feel like you are getting more water delivered than you actually are and the water pressure stays high.
The same technology is used on tap aerators, which you can often fit yourself. By adding air to the water flow you get a soft-feeling usable flow that consumes much less water.
Make sure you fix any leaking taps as 1 drip per second equals 9000 wasted litres per year.
Showers use about half the water of a bath. A five-minute shower, for instance, uses less than 38 litres of water, compared with 57 to 95 litres for a bath.
Check out the Chil Pepper device. Whenever you turn on a hot water tap and wait for it to heat up you pour huge amounts of water straight down the drain.
Chili Pepper totally stops this by recirculating what would be wasted water back through existing pipes - turn the hot water tap on and you get nothing but hot water that you can use immediately. The Chilipepper can save a typical family of four over 10,000 gallons of water per year and pays for itself within 6 months.

Use cooler water

Try lowering your water heater temperature & washing clothes in cold water. Seriously, for most loads of washing you'll get just as good results and colours are likely to last longer too.

Improve Efficiency

Insulate your storage heater if possible by wrapping an insulation blanket around the storage tank and insulating pipes wherever possible.
Consider upgrading your hot water system with an instantaneous (tankless) design or best of all go for solar or heat pump technology.

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