The delivery (pumping) of water, as well as heating and cooling that water is a big area for energy saving, and we touch on it in many places at the ClimateCorps. This most common of substances, water, has many interesting properties. Besides making life on earth possible in the first place, water has the highest ‘specific heat’ of any common substance. That is, it takes more energy to heat water each degree of temperature than anything. The result is that water heating and cooling are tremendous users, and potential wasters, of energy. Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket

You’ll save 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple action. You can save another 550 pounds per year by setting the thermostat no higher than 120 degrees Fahrenheit (about 50 degrees Celcius).

Use less hot water

Since it takes so much energy to heat water, use less hot water by installing a low flow showerhead (350 pounds of carbon dioxide saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year) instead of hot. Today’s laundry detergents to a remarkably good job even in cold water. Unless you have especially oily, greasy or dirty laundry (if you’re an auto mechanic or farmer!) cold water will do fine.

We have also grown accustomed to using hot water in many situations which may not require it. The assumption that hot water will kill bacteria is part and parcel of the complete phobia that we have developed to microscopic life forms. For hot water to be effective as an anti-bacterial agent, the water must be upwards of 180 degrees Fahrenheit, and the object exposed for 10 minutes or more. In point of fact, soap and water is about as effective as you need as cleansing the hands of possibly harmful bacteria. And warm (but not hot) soapy water will marginally increase solubility of oily residues. And we emphasize ‘possibly harmful’ in discussing bacteria since most are not harmful, indeed many are helpful or vital to our well-being, and in our quest to ‘kill the little things’ we are pouring millions of tons of anti-life chemicals into our ecosphere which are coming back to threaten our our health by promoting the adaptation of virulent, resistant forms of certain pathogenic bacteria. The message? Learn to ask the question in your daily routines, “Do I really need hot water for the?”

Use less water, period!

Wasted water is also often wasted energy. The pumping, filtering, storage facilities, infrastructure maintenance… all of it increases with more water use. Then there’s often the energy expense associated with the additional water burden on municipal waste treatment systems.