Can I afford not to waste electricity heating up my showers?
Jimbob, I’m pretty happy with my present usage controls; hot water service salespeople I’ve already talked to seem surprised when I tell them $270/year – apparently the average for my size household is closer to $400. Yes, the thermostat is on the minimum legal limit (60°C). Most of it goes on showers. We’re all too attached to long relaxing showers to cut them back much, so I’ve just turned down the heater’s inlet stopcock to control the flow. We have a dishwasher that heats its own water, which we run every two or three days. Most laundry is done cold; we occasionally hot-wash truly stinky loads (and it does make a difference). I think the 315 litre off-peak unit is correctly sized for this household. We occasionally run out of hot water when we have more than three visitors. I don’t want to use any kind of gas, because that would mean my hot water service was responsible for significant CO2 emissions. Waldo, the question is not so much whether I am able to save energy; clearly, stra
