Home Series Booklets

Lower water heating costs, room-by-room

Bathroom | Kitchen | Laundry Room | Free Copy | Art Files

In most households, it's possible to cut the amount of energy used to heat water by 25 percent to 50 percent - just by implementing a few water-saving steps and increasing your hot water system's overall efficiency. Fortunately, there are several strategies that can help you meet your hot water needs without sacrificing comfort or practicality-while consuming less energy and saving money.

Even if you're just an average do-it-yourselfer, you can manage many of the energy-saving projects covered here. However, if you're uncomfortable with the idea of working on plumbing or would rather hire someone to handle an upgrade or repair, don't hesitate to call a professional; the dollars saved through energy savings in future years will be worth the expense.

In the bathroom

• Close the drain before you turn on the water to fill the bathtub. Don't let the water run down the drain until it gets hot. Instead, close the drain and adjust the water temperature as the water level in the tub rises. If you can hear water leaking past the drain plug, replace it.
• Fill the bathtub to the level you really need. Small children require considerably less water than an adult; bathe babies in the sink.
• Take a short shower, instead of a bath. A bath generally uses more hot water than a shower, taking about 15 to 25 gallons of hot water; a short shower takes 10 gallons.
• Install a water-saving, low-flow showerhead. Older showerheads use four to five gallons per minute (gpm), while a new one uses 2.2 gpm and a water-saving unit uses 1.5 (or less) gpm.
• Replace a leaking bathtub diverter spout. If water continues to run from the tub spout (and down the drain) when you're taking a shower, you need a new tub spout.
• Fix leaky faucets. A single leaky faucet that drips enough water to fill a cup in 10 minutes will waste more than 3,000 gallons of heated water every year. You can repair many faucet leaks by simply replacing some internal parts. Note the manufacturer and model number of your faucet, and take this information to a local hardware store or home center. If buying the parts to repair an older faucet costs almost as much as replacing it, buy a new water-saving faucet instead. Look for one with a lifetime warranty.
• Install water-saving aerators on all sink faucets for just a few dollars each. An older faucet can deliver 2 to 4 gpm - new ones are 2 gpm or less - but a faucet aerator can reduce that amount to 1 or 0.5 gpm.
• Turn off the tap while brushing teeth or shaving. You can lose between 5 and 10 gallons of water down the drain if you leave the water running. Instead, rinse your razor in a filled sink.
• Wash your hands with cool water. On average, about three-quarters of the water used in a home is hot water, so don't use heated water when you really don't need it.

In the kitchen

• Install an aerator on the kitchen sink faucet. Be sure to match the aerator's flow rate to how you use the sink. For example, you may want to maintain a higher flow rate if you regularly fill large pots for cooking or use the sink for washing dishes. In addition, some aerators include a shutoff valve that allows you to temporarily turn off the water without changing the hot/cold water mix.
• Use cold water for cooking. Heating the water on your stove or cook top consumes less energy than using hot water from your water heater.
• For cold water from a single-handle faucet, push the handle right before starting the water flow. Pushing the handle straight up (or to the middle position) can mix hot water in with the cold. In addition, the hot water supply pipe between the faucet and the water heater will fill with hot water, cycling your water heater and wasting energy before the water even gets to the faucet.
• Let your dishwasher do its job. Pre-rinsing dishes usually is unnecessary, and the energy-saving features that came with the appliance - such as air-drying - can have a significant positive impact on your utility bills.
• Washing dishes by hand? Rinse them in the unused half of a divided sink. Rinsing dishes under running water - especially if it's warm or hot - uses much more water and energy than just dipping the soapy dishes in a sink partially filled with clean, cold water.

In the laundry

• Use the cold-water cycle on the clothes washer for most loads, and always use cold water for rinsing. About 90 percent of the energy used for washing clothes is for heating water, so use the warm- or hot-water cycles only when absolutely necessary. Most fabrics will get clean if you use the proper cold-water laundry detergent in your washing machine.
• Adjust the water volume to fit the load size in your clothes washer. Run full loads or adjust the machine's water level control for smaller loads. Use less laundry detergent and fabric softener too.

Sidebar

The material in this article was adapted from Water Heating, a book published by the Iowa Energy Center. Besides offering more detail on the topics discussed here, this publication describes energy-saving home improvement projects that may be eligible for rebates from local utility companies; low-income assistance and grant programs; special financing opportunities from banks, credit unions and other lending institutions; state incentives; and federal income tax credits.

To get a free copy of this book:

• Call your utility company to see if you can stop by the office and pick up a copy;
• Download a PDF copy at the Iowa Energy Center Web site: http://www.energy.iastate.edu/homeseries;
• Request a copy by e-mailing the Iowa Energy Center at iec@energy.iastate.edu; or
• Call the Iowa Energy Center at 515-294-8819 to ask for a copy to be sent to you by mail.

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Contct: Amy Myers, Iowa Energy Center, (515) 294-4391, myers@energy.iastate.edu