Do-It-Yourself Savings Project: Lower Water
If you have younger children in the house, you are always better to have your water heater set to 120 degrees to prevent scalding. If there are no kids in the home or your children are older, we would usually recommend turning the unit up to 130 or 140 degrees.
Turn Down Your Thermostat
Just like you would with your heater during the winter, or your air conditioner during the summer, simply by lowering the thermostat on your hot water heater can have a significant effect on your energy bill. The factory preset for a hot water heater is typically between 130-140°F.
Leaving hot water on all the time is typically not cheaper than heating it only when needed. Here are some key points to consider: Energy Costs: Keeping water hot continuously requires energy to maintain the temperature, which can lead to higher utility bills.
Although it takes longer and requires more fuel to heat cold water, the energy required to maintain this constant temperature is much more expensive than the few times it is heated when necessary on occasion, due to its non-use, this water is also wasted, as a result, running a boiler continuously consumes more fuel ...
For poorly insulated units, the heat loss can be fairly significant. Of course, losing heat in this way leads to more energy consumption and increased heating bills. Some estimates state that turning your water heater off at night could save you up to 10% on your monthly energy bills.
The perfect temperature to set a water heater
And the default setting of 140 F (60 C) may be going away. Recent installation manuals for major residential water heater manufacturers actually call for a starting temperature of 120 F (49 C).
The ideal temperature range for hot water at the tap is between 50°C and 60°C. At this temperature: Above 60°C: You risk scalding, especially for vulnerable groups like children and the elderly. Water this hot can cause burns in just a few seconds.
A modern combi-boiler, which provides instant hot water, is generally considered to be more energy efficient than a 'stored' hot water system. It heats the water you need to use rather than heating a large tank of water that might not be used and then left to cool down again.
Savings resulting from turning down your water heater temperature are based on reducing standby losses (heat lost from water heater into surrounding area). Set too high, or at 140ºF, your water heater can waste anywhere from $36 to $61 annually in standby heat losses.
It is certainly possible for a water heater to increase your utility bill. Several factors can reduce the efficiency, including a unit that is too small, too old, bad water, or an incorrectly set thermostat can increase the energy bill. Leaks and long pipes can increase your water usage.
A water heater is assigned a UEF within its bin based upon its first hour rating. A higher UEF means a water heater is more energy efficient and will cost less to operate compared to other water heaters in the same bin.
120 degrees Fahrenheit is the safety recommendation against scalding, but 140° is the common default setting. Most experts agree that anything below 120 degrees creates a risk for bacteria to develop inside your water heater from stagnant water, such as legionella that causes Legionnaire's disease.
Heat Pump Water Heaters: The Climate-Conserving Choice
Remarkable Efficiency: Heat pump water heaters are 2-3 times more efficient than standard electric water heaters. Dehumidifying Power: Doubles up as a dehumidifier in warm climates or the summertime.
In some cases, severe scalding can even result in death. This is why the plumbing laws require a maximum temperature of 50°C at the outlets of each shower head or tap. This is hot enough for a bath or shower, but not hot enough to cause severe scalding.
For most homes, a domestic hot water temperature around 45-50 °C during summer is more than sufficient. This ensures the water is adequately hot for daily needs without wasting energy through overheating. It is also a safety measure that prevents scalding, especially with children in the house.
It takes only 32 minutes on average for Legionella to die at temperatures of 140 degrees, and at 151 degrees, the bacteria will die instantly. This is why disinfection that uses temperature change will set a water heater to approximately 158 degrees for five minutes.
If someone is at home in the daytime, 72° F (22° C) is a good start, but aim for 68° F (20° C). If everyone is away from home in the daytime or you're asleep at night, we feel 66° F (19° C) to 62° F (17° C) is best.
So, what is the best temperature range for your water heater? The EPA recommends 120 degrees because it's hot enough to keep diseases at bay but not hot enough to cause scalding. This setting will also supply enough hot water for most small families and is relatively energy efficient.
Heat pump water heaters move heat from one place to another instead of generating heat directly for providing hot water, resulting in high efficiencies and significant cost savings. Solar water heaters use the sun's heat to provide hot water and also save money on energy bills.
If you keep your water at a high temperature all the time, you will lose more heat to the environment even if the cylinder is well insulated. Your water heating costs will increase in direct proportion to the average temperature of the cylinder over the day. You will end up paying for more energy as a result.
Homeowners will find that by turning down their hot water tank temperature by about 20 degrees to 120 Fahrenheit or 48 Celsius, they will see cost savings of about 6 to 10 percent.