Save on Hot Water 
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The heating of water takes an astonishing amount of energy. Nowadays many of us are used to having hot water on tap whenever we want it. This has made us appreciate its value much less.
What really brought it home for me was staying in India in 1990. After weeks on the road with my backpack, I found a guesthouse in the middle of nowhere that offered “Hot Shower”. Next morning when I asked the owner if I could have the shower now and he sent his boy out to the man who made hot water.
It was a full hour and half before the hot water arrived. Trundled on a wheel-barrow contraption, about 30 litres of it had evidently been heated over a small fire, all for my personal consumption. And as I relished my first hot shower for weeks, I couldn’t help thinking what energy and effort had gone into for what at home is such a simple pleasure.
Today we expect the tap to run hot whenever we want it. We don’t need a hot-water wallah to make it, instead it magically comes from a pipe.
However, unless you’re powered by renewables, every time you run the hot tap, there is CO2 going up in the air - in bucket loads.
POSITIVE STEPS:
Reduce Use:
We want hot showers not just occasionally but every day. More than that, we’ve now been sold power showers, and very lovely they are too. Trouble is with three times the water rate they result in three times the global warming pollution. So just one week’s worth of power showering now produces the same CO2 as three weeks’ worth of lower-flow showers.
But all is not lost - if you treat the hot water tap as your control on CO2. The slower you run it, the less CO2 is made. These days it’s just so easy to turn the hot tap on, but instead look for occasions where you can use less or even none at all.
Sometimes if the water takes an age to come hot through the tap you might be running many litres out before you get it coming warm. If this is the case and you only need a little hot, one tip is to fill a thermos with it when it’s running ready for future use.
Another alternative is fill the kettle with what you need and warm it up to whatever temperature you want. This prevents all those litres wastage in the pipe, a saving which will accrue every time you do it.
Lag Tank:
Hot water systems tend to be either tankless, make-on-demand ones (the combi-boiler approach), or a tank that holds the water and gets heated up from time to time. If you’ve got a tank then there are some great chances to make substantial savings.
Basically the tank is losing heat all the time, and the more heat is lost the more energy it consumes in topping the temperature up. The single biggest way you can help your tank is by lagging it, cutting down at a stroke the amount of heat wasted.
View it as putting a great big jumper on the thing. You can get a Tank Jacket from any good DIY store for around a tenner and it will pay for itself incredibly quickly. Make sure it’s a good thick one though, at least 75mm.
If you’ve currently got a tank jacket that’s maybe a bit thin, consider putting another one on as well. The more you insulate, the less energy you are wasting.
As well as being a substantial shrinking of your Carbon footprint, you’ll have more hot water when you actually want it.
Pipes:
While you’re at it, see what hot water pipes you have around your tank. They too will be leaking heat and at quite a rate as they present a large exposed area.
This heat loss can be drastically reduced by putting on some pipe lagging. It’s normally made of foam and comes in 1meter lengths. It doesn’t cost very much at all, but is another good positive step.
Plug In !
We’re normally looking for any chance to pull plugs out, but when it comes to sink plugs the message is put ‘em in !
Putting a plug in the sink simply means our precious hot water has a chance to hang around - and get more that just one second’s worth of use. Rather than running it straight down the drain, use a plug to make more use of it.
Particularly in the kitchen, collecting the water allows things to soak before being washed. And when soaked they often require just a little light rinsing rather than a hard scrub (prevents cereal bowls turning to concrete!)… So kinder to the planet AND less washing up – that’s got to be a win.
Be Greener:
Currently most people heat their hot water by fossil fuels (gas, oil) or electricity. However these are not the only options.
Heating water in a Carbon-neutral way can be via a Solar Panel or Wood-fired boiler. The latter requires careful tending and remembering to light a fire when you want hot water, while the Solar approach can be pretty self-managing.
It might not always feel it, but we do actually receive sunshine in the UK ! Maybe not enough for that Mediterranean tan, but certainly a very useful amount from a solar hot water point of view. Fitting a regular solar panel should allow you to have Zero Carbon hot water for around half the year. If you go for the more advanced evacuated tubes, these can also harvest a healthy amount of solar heat in winter (rather than lose heat which some flat plate systems do).
In terms of Carbon saving ‘bang per buck’, solar hot water is hard to beat. It makes a lot more sense than installing say solar electric (PV) or your own wind turbine. You will be replacing your second biggest energy use with a Carbon-free alternative, saving Carbon with every turn of the tap.
There’s a growing number of installers offering their services, and generally you might expect to pay around three grand for an installed system.
And if you’re interested in it, take a look at www.Navitron.org.uk. They have a host of information and supply a number of solar kits at very good prices if you’re feeling in a DIY kind of mood.
