Try to follow my logic on this one.
I’ve been thinking about my hot water heater because we got a new one & it has a handy little temperature knob on the top of it. When we 1st got it, I set it to what the dial said was the standard & the water was plenty hot.
That got me thinking about what the house uses hot water for. For the last year or so, I’ve been washing all my clothes in cold water (and I can’t tell the difference) So other than bathing/showering/washing, I can’t think of a need for hot water, let along really hot water (and if you can think of one other than a baseboard heating system that’s hooked up to the hot water tank please post it)
So I’ve been adjusting the temp down after each shower & I think I’m to the point where when I shower, I don’t need to mix in a lot of cold water to have a comfortable shower.
My thinking on this is that:
A - I’m saving water by not mixing the hot with a lot of cold (yes, the pressure is a little less in the shower, but it’s not bad)
B - I’m saving on gas because the hot water tank does not have to maintain such a high temp.
Does this make sense?



I take it you don’t live alone, since you said ‘we’ got a water heater. I keep ours turned down a little, though not too much so the dishwasher gets it required almost 120 degrees. If you have other people living with you, and they want to shower after you, they will find it running cool sooner than they would like. One thing, though: You are definitely NOT saving any water. However you mix it, all the water in your house comes in the same pipe. If the pressure seems less it is because a lot of houses, like mine, have less pressure in the hot water pipes than in the cold because of sediment buildup. The best thing to do if you don’t need much hot water is to buy a smaller water heater. Many people have 50 gal tanks when they could easily use a 30 gal. Maybe you only need 20 in your case.
It takes a lot less gas to keep a smaller tank hot all day. Of course, now that you have a new one it will have to wait a bit. Now, here is a question for the audience: My fav cooking show man says to use hot water to cook pasta, so you don’t have to waste gas at the stove heating cold water. However, after seeing the crud that accumulates in the bottom of water heaters, I am not sure I want to drink that stuff. Any thoughts on that?
Apr 07 07 2:15 pm