Your home’s water heater is one of the most valuable pieces of equipment you have. It provides a vital resource to you and your family members. Because your hot water system is such a vital part of your home’s comfort, it is used often, and will account for a good portion of the amount you pay on your utility bills each month. Therefore, it’s crucial that you make sure it’s operating in an energy-efficient manner. One way to do this is to insulate it properly.
Water heater insulation is important, because, without it, your tank will lose heat to the air surrounding it. This will force your system to work harder than necessary to keep the water at a consistent temperature. In fact, by properly insulating your water heater, you can reduce standby heat losses by as much as 25-45 percent, which will result in energy savings between 4 and 9 percent on your water heating costs.
As a general rule of thumb, if your water heater is warm to the touch, it’s wasting energy. If this is the case, you should add an insulating jacket or blanket around it.
For electric water heaters, adding insulation around the tank is fairly easy. All you have to do is cut out holes for the heating elements. The addition of insulation to a gas water heater, on the other hand, is trickier, and if you have any doubts about how to do it, contact a skilled HVAC professional. For a gas water heater, for example, the insulation must not block airflow to the burner.
Water heater insulation is fairly cheap, and by adding it to your system, you can more than make up for the initial cost by saving money on your future utility bills. For more information, contact the experts at Ernst Heating & Coolingtoday. We’ll be more than happy to assist you with all of your home comfort needs.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about water heaters and other HVAC topics, visit our blog.
Ernst Heating & Cooling services Hamel, Illinois and the surrounding areas.
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