Archive for the ‘green living’ Category

Over the next few articles we will talk about several different tips and tricks to helping you save money on your home’s energy needs.

But, as the title suggests, it is almost always beneficial to start small and work up to larger green improvement to your home. So we are going to begin talking about some of the small, inexpensive ways you can begin to see energy efficiency in your home.

Here are some pretty simple things you can do to get started at saving your hard earned money.

Your Water Heater

There are several things that you can improve with your water heater to see benefits in energy savings.

Most people cannot use straight hot water and that’s where some savings can come in. So you are heating water only to mix it with cold water so it is usable. By lowering the hot water temperature to the lowest comfortable setting for your needs you can save a great deal of energy. Most hot water heaters have dials that you can use to turn the temperature down. Just do not drop it below 120 F, as below 120 is an unsafe level for bacteria and sanitation reasons.

You could also install a timer on your water heater. What is the sense of warming water over and over during the day or night if you are not going to be using it for several hours? Just set the timer to kick back on before you come home from work or get up in the morning so that hot water is ready and waiting for you.

Maybe one of the largest benefits is to have your water heater insulated. Yes I know your water heater is already insulated so now you just need to take it to a higher level. By adding insulation around the outside of your water heater, you will keep more of the heat inside the water heater and therefore reduce the energy used to heat it up.

You can purchase premade insulation blankets for hot water heaters that you can easily apply to your hot water heater. These take just minutes to install. Or you make your own blanket with strips of insulation cut to size and use duct tape to keep it in place.

Just be careful not to cover the areas where gas or piping are located otherwise the water heater will not function properly for you.

Your Piping

Another easy energy saving solution for you to consider is to insulate your home’s piping. Your hot water pipes carry hot water to the various faucets in your home.
So it is important to insure that while the hot water is traveling from the hot water heater to its destination it stays as hot as possible. Simply by insulating the pipes you can insure that the water temperature does not drop from the hot water heater to where you will use it.

All you need to do is purchase and install some pre-made foam pipe insulation available at most hardware and lumber stores.

It is easy to cut to the proper lengths with a sharp knife so that you can insert it over the piping. Make sure to measure for a snug fit too and snap it onto the piping. When you come to a corner, joint or other angle, all you need to do is to bend the foaming to form fit over the piping. Most of the time, this is easy to do. Then, use duct tape to cover any of the slits you have made and the joints.

It is a good idea to do the cold pipes as well. These pipes often sweat and then drip onto the other hot pipes, again, lowering the temperature in them. Insulating your pipes can help to protect them from freezing and or breaking during winter months.

For more great ideas look for part 2.