If you are anything like the typical Australian, you will no doubt be exploring all sorts of ways to reduce your household hot water bills.
Here are a few simple tips that can help you to slash costs in this area.
1. Choose more efficient appliances
By carefully selecting the appliances in your household, you may be able to see a dramatic drop in your hot water usage.
In fact, the dishwasher and washing machine are some of the most thirsty items in your home, responsible for using most of your household hot water.
Replacing your old washing machine with a water-efficient model can mean you save around two-thirds of the amount of water used, according to the Department of Industry.
In order to determine whether your appliance is as energy efficient as possible, there is a water efficiency labelling and standards scheme (WELS) you can use for reference.
This gives an indication about how water efficient a product is with a star rating system. More stars mean more efficiency.These are written on labels and attached to the goods. The labels also show the water consumption or flow figures.
2. Selecting an efficient shower head
Showers account for around 80 per cent of the hot water heating in the average home, according to New Zealand’s Community Energy Action Charitable Trust.
In order to reduce this amount, you could consider installing low flow energy efficient shower heads or flow restrictors. These can save around 18 litres of water per minute, state Department of Industry figures.
Typically shower heads use around 6 to 25 litres of water per minute, but a three-star water efficient model can reduce this to nine litres.
If shower times are also cut down this can result in further savings, of course!
A 10 minute shower with a standard shower head using 15 litres per minute will run through around 105 litres of hot water, while a five minute shower with a three-star rated shower head with a flow of 6 litres can reduce this to 21 litres, according to Ausgrid. That is an 80 per cent reduction.
3. Only do full loads
If you are planning on running the dishwasher or putting some clothes on to wash, make sure you are running these items with a full load, otherwise you are wasting that hot water.
These appliances are more efficient when they are cleaning the maximum amount possible.
4. Low flow or tap aerators
While appliances and showers use the most hot water in the average home, your other taps also use heated water.
Ensure these are not dripping and fix any leaks immediately. A tap leaking even one drop per second can waste around 12,000 litres of water per year.
On existing bathroom and bathroom taps you can install a flow regulator, low flow taps or a tap aerator. This can reduce the amount of water released.
If the most efficient model is selected, it can reduce tap water use from eight litres per minute to two, according to the Department of Industry.
5. Select the best hot water system
Choosing the best solar hot water system can help you to reduce the amount of this liquid you use.
A solar hot water system means your household is able to generate its own hot water, so there is no need to use electricity for this task as you can instead rely on the sun’s rays for the task.
To talk to the experts about how one of these systems could best help you, contact the friendly team at Apricus. They can provide all the assistance and advice you need.
