Don't Waste Heat

If one saves heating then money will be saved. When water is heated and not used money is wasted. Plumbers will advise that inefficiencies in the plumbing system in the home ie a flat or house or inefficient use of heaters can also waste heat. Plumbers advices a number of areas which can be looked into to avoid wasting heat.

• Firstly if your hot water cylinder is not insulated you need to get it insulated. Either by trying to Do It Yourself or by getting an expert ie a Plumber. A 75mm thick lagging jacket on a hot water cylinder cuts down heat loss by about 70 per cent. A 140 litre cylinder without a jacket, maintained at a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius, losses enough heat every week to heat about 20 baths. Many modern cylinders are foam lagged by the manufacturer already. • The other issue is the length of pipes. A good plumber will ensure that your hot water pipes are as short as is practicable. The length of pipe between the hot water cylinder and a hot tap is known as a dead leg, because hot water left in the pipe after each use of the tap cools and is wasted. The longer the pipe, the more the waste. Water at 60 degrees Celsius travelling through a 15mm copper pipe loses heat equivalent to more than 1 unit of electricity for roughly each 300mm of run per week - enough to heat about 45 litres of water. Where a hot water supply pipe to a basin or shower would involve a dead leg of piping of more than 6m long, it is wiser to use an instantaneous heater instead.

• Other than the length of your pipes it is essential to avoid secondary hot water circulation. This means that at one time, if a shower or tap was some distance from the hot water cylinder, there would be a constant circulation of hot water to it by means of a return pipe back to the cylinder. This ensures that there was not a delay in the arrival of hot water to the tap. But because of the heat lost, avoid such secondary circulation, particularly with electric heating.

• If you speak to your Plumber they will explain why a shower should be installed. It is simple though - to save money. If you use a shower for daily cleansing and keep the bath for relaxed soaking this will save heat as a bath takes about six times as much water as a shower.

• Although a thermostat gives economical heating by controlling temperature, even a well lagged cylinder will lose heat (generally the equivalent of about 6 units of electricity a week) therefore it is ideal to heat water only as required. If your heater is left on all the time this will increase you're heating costs. A good tip to save on heat is to switch on an immersion heater or boiler only about an hour before hot water is needed, and switching it off when it is not wanted. Why not get your plumber to have your heater fitted with a time switch as this is a convenient way to do this. Time switches have a manual override to allow use of the heater at other than the set times.

• Big Tip: Take advantage also of cheaper night rates for electricity. Details of off-peak meters and tariffs are available from your electricity supplier.

Installing an energy efficent heating system by a qualified and registered plumber is ideal and although there is no way to avoid some heat to be wasted one can put the advice in this article into practice and see the reduction of heating bills.

Comments? Questions? Email Here

© HowtoAdvice.com

How to Advice .com