Money up in Steam!

I might be the last person to realize this, but I was surprised to find out that in the average Canadian home the cost of heating water is second largest energy expense with the largest being the heating of the home itself! Click here: Ministry of Energy for more details.

This realization then prompted the question - what can I do to minimize this expense [keeping in mind that I plan to both bath daily and wear clean clothes].

Here are a couple of tips to consider implementing:

-shower rather then have a bath: a typical bath uses about 75 litres of hot water; a five minute shower uses about half that amount.

-wash your clothes in cold or warm water rather than hot: not only will this save money, but your clothes will last longer. 85%-90% of the energy used by your washing machine is to heat the water.

-minimize pre-rinse of dishes before putting them into the dishwasher. Rather then rinsing, scrape the food off, or use less hot water. By the way, a dishwasher uses much less energy then washing the dishes by hand

-reach for the cold tap rather then the hot tap. Whenever possible, use the cold water tap rather then hot water.

-insulate your water tank. At most hardware stores you can pick up a special blanket to insulate your water tank. This will minimize the amount of energy that is used just to keep the water warm.

More involved options include:

-investigating replacing the electric water heater with a gas powered one.
-installing solar panels that use passive solar energy to preheat the water

For more information these options a good starting point is this guide from the Ministry of Energy.

The Ministry of Energy also has several quite good guides that discuss a wide range of energy conservation tips and solutions. Click here to go to that site.