Nickel And Dime Tip - Hot Water

Here's a point I read awhile back that I thought I'd share:

Have you ever rinsed something, or washed your hands so quickly that even though your tap was set for warm or hot water, the hot water didn't have a chance to travel through the pipes before you turned the water off?

Essentially you ended up using cold anyway - no big deal. But unless you had the tap set for cold (in our case, pushed all the way to the right), there was still water taken from the hot water tank and drawn into the pipes. This means that more water will have to be heated to replace it.

It's such a small amount (not even pennies?) each time, until you consider adding up every single time the tap is turned on and off (on and off, on and off).

If the still cold water that comes out of the tap is fine for what you need, why take it from the hot water tank?


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Being Green Pays Off In Hydro And Gas Savings

Ha! So it is worth wearing an extra sweater and weaning myself off my old "light junkie" habits ;-)

I wonder if it makes any difference some days, when I can't seem to get warm, and I can't summon the energy to get up off the couch to turn off the bathroom light left on by one of the kids, but then... our bills arrive, bringing with them renewed inspiration.

First, let's look at hydro. (This would be me chasing after the kids, sending them back to their rooms to turn lights off. "Who's watching that TV? No one? OK can we turn it off please?") Turn off, unplug, turn off, unplug... you get the picture.

This month is the third month in a row that we've had a credit balance on our bill, and we'll probably get one more credit month as well. This of course is pre-paid hydro from being on the equal payment plan, and ideally the money could be in our bank account earning interest, but the fact that our credit this year equals about four months is evidence of our decreased consumption.

Confirming this is the "Daily Average Comparison" featured on the bill, which reads as follows:

Jan 2008 58 kWh
Jan 2009 30 kWh

This year we are using just slightly more than half of the hydro we used last year, all from unplugging things while not in use, and turning off unnecessary lights.

Next let's look at gas, which we use for heating and cooking.

We recently installed new windows, and I think they are the main reason that our gas consumption is less. I do try and use the toaster oven when I can instead of the gas oven, and I've been hanging most of our clothes to dry as well. According to our bill, the weather has been colder this January than last, and yet our gas usage has been less:

Jan 2008 Average daily temp: 4C; Average daily gas usage: 0.52 GJ
Jan 2009 Average daily temp: 0C; Average daily gas usage: 0.37 GJ

Our monthly installment payment has gone down from $147.00 to $127.00.

You wonder (at least I did) when you turn off that extra light or turn the heat down that half degree if it really makes any difference. Apparently so!

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