Turn down your hot water
If you’ve never had a fiddle with your boiler thermostat, then don’t worry – you’re not alone. Not many people think to turn it down, even if the water coming out of the hot tap is scalding.
Here’s a good test: if you need to mix cold water with hot to get your water at the right temperature, it probably means your hot water is too hot.
And since heating water accounts for 20% of household energy use, turning your boiler down a bit can make a big difference to the CO2 coming out of your home and the gas bills coming into it.
Other ways to use less of the hot stuff:
- Check the settings on your boiler timer. You deserve better than the factory pre-sets, so make sure you’re only heating water when you need to. And if you don’t have a timer, get one here.
- Consider switching to a mega-efficient condensing boiler - it could save a third off your heating bills, and 700 kg of CO2.
- Use cold water when you don’t really need hot, like for example cleaning around the house or washing your windows. And things like micro-fibre cloths can give you a better clean without getting the bucket out at all.
- Or adjust your hot water or heating thermostat when you’re not even in the house with The Heatmiser Netmonitor. It allows you to do it with a web browser or even by text message.
More info from the Green Thing wiki >>
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Here’s a thing….in Iceland it actually costs more to supply cold water than it does hot. Hot running water pops straight up out of the ground, and is piped directly into homes and swimming pools. The only downside is because of all the sulphur it does whiff a bit of eggs. But you get used to that, apparently.
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