Think about your hot water heater. It sits there, making sure you have hot water when you need it, and most of the time it is unused. Yet, used or not, it heats the water during the day, because it never know when you are going to turn on the hot water tap!

This constant heating of the water uses energy. Thus, the warmer you set the thermostat on your hot water heater, the more energy it will use to keep the water warm. When choosing the temperature for your water heater, consider this: you don't want the water to scald you when you turn on the hot water tap!

For years, I have run the hot water for my morning shower, turning the hot and cold taps to get the right temperature for my shower. How silly! The hot was always so hot that I had to add a lot of cold water to even be able to run my finger comfortably under the stream of water coming out of the faucet!

Well, now the water heater thermostat is set somewhere between low and medium, which puts the temperature at about 120 degrees. Newer water heaters have an actual temperature shown on the dial, so you can select the temperature you desire. And, what you are likely to find is that 120 degrees still feels hot!

Our body temperature is around 98.6 degrees, so anything warmer than that will feel warm, and cooler than that will feel cold.

In addition to reducing the temperature setting, consider turning the water heater off when you are on vacation. Does your empty house need a ready supply of hot water at a moment's notice?

If you have an electric water heater, consider adding an insulating blanket, and for any water heater, try insulating the first several feet of pipes leaving the heater. There are foam sleeves made for this purpose.

Turning down the temperature will save about 150 pounds of CO2 a year, and adding a blanket and hot water pipe sleeves will save another 175 pounds of CO2.


Now, if you want to virtually eliminate the CO2 created by your water heater, look into installing a solar water heater! And while the book doesn't mention this, I would like to add that as an alternative, consider installing a "tankless" (on-demand) water heater that only heats the water when you need it!