It's your turn to wash the dishes.
Approach sink. Turn on hot tap. Add washing-up liquid. Smile at bubbles. It's a bit hot. Add cold water.
Stop. Don't move a muscle. How many time have you done this? And every time you add cold water. Me to.
Then I read Mel Rimmer's blog. She said:
"if you always have to add cold water to your bath or washing-up water, then your water thermostat is too high"
Oh yeah. Why didn't I think of that?
Now hot water matters. You know why? Take a look at this chart from the DTI:
As you can see lighting only makes up only 3% of average household energy use. That's tiny, isn't it?
I don't get out of bed for 3%. I want to save 30%. Now hot water, there's an area with potential.
So I decided to turn my hot water down. Here's how to do it if you have an electric immersion heater:
- Turn off the power
- Find where the electric wire enters the hot water tank
- Unscrew the plate/cap that hides the join
- Adjust the thermostat with a screwdriver
Mine was set to 60 degrees. We do most of our washing at 40 degrees, so 60 felt a tad excessive. I went for 50 degrees.
That was easy. Cost: nothing. Time taken: 5 minutes. Impact on my lifestyle: nil. My energy-saving campaign is off to a roaring start.
