HomeWorks – Creating a Cleaner, Greener, More Comfortable Home

Water Heaters: By insulating hot water piping and turning your water heater down 10 degrees you can save up to 5% annually on your hot water heating costs. The average life of a standard hot water heater is 10-15 years depending on many factors such as the water pressure in your house and the quality of the water.

 Many of the tankless water heater manufacturers state that you will enjoy up to a 40% energy savings by switching from a standard (tank type) water heater to a tankless model. While that may be partially true, there is another factor to consider. The average family of 5 spends about $35 per month on hot water heating costs. If the savings is truly 40%, that would equate to a savings of roughly $14 per month. The average installed cost of a 40 gallon high recovery tank type water heater is $800 while the average installed cost of a high quality tankless type is $2700, a difference of $1900. This means that for an average family of 5 it would take roughly 11 years to break even on the energy savings. However until the end December 31^st 2010 the federal government is giving a tax credit of 30% of the cost with a cap at $1500. The average tax credit would be $810 based upon the average installation cost. That means the breakeven point would then be roughly just 6.5 years. Now the additional investment makes more sense.

 Tankless water heaters save money due to the fact that they are only heating the water when we are using it as opposed to a tank type heater that heats the water in the tank and stores it. It’s heating whether we are using hot water or not.

 The other big advantage of tankless water heater is that you’ll never run out of hot water. We’ve all taken cold showers after our teenagers take the typical 30 minute lounge in the water. With a tankless system, you’ll never have to worry about running out of hot water.

 Other helpful savings tips: Run the washing machine only with full loads and always rinse with cold water. Don’t leave the water running while brushing your teeth or shaving. Only run your dishwasher with full loads and check to see if it has an energy saver option.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 12:08 pm and is filed under Home Improvements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.