From Guest Blogger Lizzie Weakly: Four Ways Your Plumbing Affects Your Home’s Energy-Efficiency
Plumbing isn’t something a lot of homeowners like to think about that often. The only time they tend to worry about it is when a serious malfunction requires hiring a plumber. However, your plumbing can affect a lot more than your ability to use water in your home. It can also affect your overall energy bills. Below are four ways your plumbing can affect your home’s energy efficiency.
1. An Inefficient Water Heater
Providing your home with hot water requires a lot of energy. In fact, energy consumption by your water heater may compose a whopping 18 percent of your electricity bill. If your water heater isn’t running properly, this figure may be even higher. One possible cause of high energy bills can simply be a poorly designed or damaged water heater. If that is the case, swap it out for a newer and more energy efficient model. Your savings might end up being rather significant.
2. Poorly Insulated Pipes
According to Bishop Plumbing, Heating and Cooling, one of the most common causes of energy loss in plumbing is poorly insulated pipes. If the pipes running from the water heater are not properly insulated, this could result in significant heat loss. This wastes energy, and it can be quite uncomfortable as well. Even worse, poorly insulated pipes could also freeze during the winter.
3. Poor Water Pressure
When your pluming system’s water pressure is low, water takes longer to move through the pipes to reach you. This can result in a lot of energy used to heat your water being lost. A lot of the warmer water will never reach you. The water that does will be cooler, requiring you to run the hot water for longer. Overall, poor water pressure is a serious problem that should be fixed by a professional plumber.
4. Leaks
Even simple leaks can result in your plumbing system eating up more of your electricity bill than it should. If there are significant leaks located in the right spots, this can lead to hot water routinely leaving your system and the rest of the hot water slowly cooling as a result. Make sure to check your plumbing for leaks on a regular basis. Fixing them can save you a lot of money.
While we mostly associate plumbing with water bills, problems with plumbing can also result in higher energy bills as well. Make sure to check your plumbing for issues on a regular basis so you can insure that you are not wasting money.
Energy and water are also wasted while waiting for the water at a faucet (tap) to become hot. One remedy is a hot water recirculation pump. The ones which are always running waste energy, but there is a demand system in which the pump does not run until you press a button; it is possible have a button at every location where there is a hot water faucet. Before opening the faucet, one presses the button and waits a minute or so for the hot water to circulate then, when the faucet is opened, the water is hot almost immediately. The pump automatically shuts off once the hot water has circulated.
Unless the distance from the water heater to all faucets is very short, I recommend getting the highest capacity demand pump available to minimize the wait time.