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November 1st means....
Today, being November 1st, is the day when my regional gas utility hikes our gas rates by nearly 40%. They call this the winter cost of doing business. I call it the Annual Winter Heist.
In honor of the occasion, today is the day that I turn the gas hot water heater down to luke warm temps. I have been a little more liberal with hot water this autumn, but now I’m back to pinching those pennies earmarked for the gas company until they scream for mercy. I don’t like paying the gas company, especially when they take advantage of cold weather by their opportunistic rate raising.
Some might find fiddling with the hot water heater’s dial a pain in the neck. But I learned last winter that doing so saves a lot of money. That wasn’t the goal of the 90% Project, but it surely was a welcome benefit. Obviously, the less gas I use, the less the gas company can charge me. Too bad for them.
In the morning, I turn up the water heater to a temperature that’s comfortable for a shower. After a shower, the water heater replenishes and then I turn it down to the vacation setting until the next morning. Most newer hot water heaters retain enough heat through the day and well into the evening for general use. Older hot water heaters can be easily wrapped with insulated covers to gain the same effect.
If your hot water is electric and you are paying through the nose for electricity, this will work just as well for you.
Think of it as making an appointment with your hot water. There are certain times of day when we use more hot water than others. It really doesn’t make sense to heat water when no one is around to use it. It’ll cool off and reheat again and again. By turning the water heater’s dial down a few notches, the heating unit won’t kick on until you are ready to replenish your supply.
It all depends on your schedule.
Might take a little while to get into the habit, but it’ll pay you nice dividends and help reduce our use of a finite resource.
Of course, there is also the issue of not permitting the utility company to rob us totally blind.
I wish someone would come up with one that has a timer on it like our digital therms!!! Now that would be nice. I would be constantly running up and down to the basement. Everyone here takes showers at different times! I thought about doing that the other day when you where over but I would drive my self nuts lol. Just to many of us. I am thinking of turning it down another notch if I can. And today the heat gets bumped a few degree’s also. I hate the utility companies!
Hey, I have the captcha word eventide again!
I don’t suppose posting a sign on the bathroom door saying, “Hot showers available between 6AM and 9AM. After that yer outta luck ‘til tomorrow” would go over very well, huh? 
In your case, turning it up at 10PM and turning it back down at 10AM would probably still cover all your needs and still save a lot of gas. Lots of different ways to do it.
I need to turn ours down, too. I asked “someone else” to do it, but I did not notice any movement in that direction. Probably cause that person takes LONG showers. I should have this morning since I was up and down about 6 times. Apparently for some reason our furnace shut off in the night so the house was a balmy 50 degrees downstairs and 53 upstairs when I got up. BRRR! Had to reset the furnace and only now about 4 hours later is the chill finally going away. Note to self: show “someone else” where the reset button is cause he has no clue!! ;)
Yeesh, that’s brisk. That has happened a couple other times in the last year, hasn’t it? Your furnace is trying ever so hard to conserve energy for you. ;)
I am glad I don’t have to mess with my furnace very much anymore. When you turn the thermostat up and nothing happens, it’s always such a sinking feeling. That’s when I want to take a hammer to it (although that turned out to be the solution to my problem with it last year. The repairman charged me $85 to teach me that...) That’s one appliance I *really* don’t enjoy monkeying with.
Yes, you are right. I think it is only 3 years old and this has happened at least twice a year since we got it. I asked the guys that installed it (very reputable) why and they had no good reason - the first two times it happened. But since it still happens and I cannot think of any reason, I think I need to ask again. I should never have to worry about this with a new furnace.
LOL, ya right! E and I shower in the morning. Right now there is a few hours in between. The kids shower any time from the time they get home from school to 10PM at night. Yes I know. Pain in my ass. Two girls is all I can say. Like I said I would drive myself bonkers trying to make sure there was hot water when it was needed. 
I did however turn it down to the A setting. We shall see how that goes in the next few days. And if all goes well I will try the big arrow mark. Anything lower than that is not recommended if you are using a dishwasher, I guess. The water still runs very hot at the kitchen sink. I haven’t had time to check out the rest yet. E just jumped into the shower so I will find out about that in a few minutes I guess.
I didn’t reilize that you just had to turn the knob lol. I thought you had to turn it off then on again for some stupid reason or I would have done it while we were down there LOL.
LOL, got my answer already! Water is not hot enough. Sigh. Thankfully the knob slides and not clicks into place so I can turn it up just a midge and see if that works.