How to make your conventional electric hot water heater more efficient – Insulate it!

Good morning everyone.

Very soon, my husband and I will be moving to a nicer, more recent apartment building (having outgrown the “college” setting we are currently residing in) and I will be, for the first time, paying all my utilities, including hot water. That one is very new to me since I’ve always lived in buildings where the hot water tanks were in the basement, gas heated, and I never had to worry about them.

But as of July 1st, we will have access to our electric water tank in our apartment and will have our own separate counter. Not only do we see this as a great way to start really paying attention to how much we use, but it will be a great start to us finding ways to making the adjustments and changes in order to make our conventional water heater as efficient as possible.

According to Natural Resources Canada and the Office of Energy Efficiency :

Storage tank water heaters are by far the most common type used in Canada. These systems heat and store water in a tank so that hot water is available to the home at any time. As hot water is drawn from the top of the tank, cold water enters the bottom of the tank and is heated. The heating source can be electricity, gas or oil.

More efficient storage tank water heaters can perform as much as 40 percent better than conventional models. An energy-efficient model will typically have one or more of the following features:

• extra tank insulation for better heat retention and less standby loss (loss of heat through the walls of the tank)
• a better heat exchanger to transfer more heat from the energy source to the water
• factory-installed heat traps, which allow water to flow into the tank but prevent unwanted flow of hot water out of the tank

So if you are shopping for a new water tank and cannot afford green power like solar panels for water heating, look for the more efficiently rated ones.

But if you are like me, renting and don’t have a say really over the tank that you have or not able to get a new tank, that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about it!

Our tip is to go to a place like Home Depot or Lowes and buy a hot water heater blanket. Now be sure you take all your measurements because not all water heaters are the same! But these places will sell most conventional sizes for under 30$.

The U.S. Department of Energy has posted a very comprehensive guide to installing an insulation blanket that I plan on using to make sure our tank is well fitted. According to them, “adding insulation to it can reduce standby heat losses by 25%–45%. This will save you around 4%–9% in water heating costs.” Not too bad for a 30$ investment. And less water heating means a lesser carbon footprint which is once again the ultimate goal.

Hope this was useful!

What ways do you use to save on your energy bill?

Your refrigerator : A few ways to make it more energy efficient

Good morning everyone! I was reading a little bit about home appliances and decided to share a few thoughts with you.


If you are like me, you want to be on top of your energy consumption and buy all Energy Star rated appliances, but it’s not always so easy. Everybody’s budget is different and even though we do eventually plan on changing all of them, we have been going at it one at a time. We started by the washer-dryer because to us, that was the first one to come in. With all the water wasted in conventional washing machine, which was a no brainer.

Thinking of which one to buy next is my inspiration for this blog.

Did you know…

That according to Natural Resources Canada’s Office of Energy Efficiency, the average refrigerator sold in Canada used up 487 kWh?

Now here was the surprising part : Most models that are sold with the Energy Star label only cut the energy consumption by an average of 10%.

After reading this, I started thinking that although 10% less is 10% less, there had to be ways to make my existing fridge more efficient itself.

Here are a few tips I found in a book titled 365 gestes pour sauver la Terre (365 things you can do to save the Earth) by Philippe Bourseiller that will help me, and hopefully you, cut down on energy use :

• Don’t position your fridge near a heat source like a the stove or a radiator.
• Do not position your fridge in the light of a south facing window.
• Don’t put in the fridge foods that are still hot. Let them cool down to room temperature before placing them in the fridge.
• Do not overheat your kitchen. Keep the ambient temperature a few degrees lower than the rest of the house. Cooking and baking will easily make up the difference anyway.

I hope these little hints will help in making your kitchen a bit more energy friendly!

What steps do you take to make your appliances work better and more efficiently?