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After feeding my 10 month old daughter this morning, I turned on the kitchen sink faucet to soak a wash cloth in warm water to wash up. As usual, it took about a minute before warm water actually reached the tap resulting in wasted time, energy, and money.
Even though I had insulated my hot water piping last year, the hot water inside my home’s hot water service lines will only stay warm for a couple hours before all of the water needs to be displaced with new hot water from my home’s furnace. I am literally draining up to two gallons of previously warmed water down the drain every time I go more than a couple hours between running the hot water faucet.
Unless you have a recirculating hot wire line in your home, you probably suffer from a similar inconvenience (recirculating hot water lines waste even more energy, but there is no waiting for hot water to reach the tap).
The Solution to Waiting for Hot Water to Reach the Tap?
If all you need is a little bit of warm water to wash down your counter tops, pots and pans, or in my case…my daughter’s hands and face, here is a simple technique to try.
Simply moisten the wash cloth with cold water (no waiting) and stick it in the microwave for 4-6 seconds and you have an instant warm wash cloth!
It sounds easy (and is probably painfully obvious to most people), but this simple energy saving technique can prevent households from wasting hundred of gallons of hot water every year!
Still not convinced this is a good idea? If you spend an average of one minute a day waiting for hot water, this tip will free up 6 hours of your time each year! Hey, that is more time to read Trees Full of Money!
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36 Ways to Reduce Your Home’s Energy Use
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Or you could throw some hot water into a thermos.
I’m not convinced it’s good to microwave bleached or dyed fabrics unless you need to zap microrganisms.
Besides, a thermos doesn’t use any electricity at all.
Unfortunately, in my experience, liquids in a thermos only stay warm for 6-10 hours.
Meaning you would still need to run your faucet, microwave, or stove to warm up the water each time.
The concern about the dye may be valid, but I remember getting microwaved towels in first class with Continental one time. I just assumed they used a microwave.
Or you could keep a bowl or a pot in the sink to catch the water while you are waiting for it to warm up. I use this “leftover” water for the pets and to water plants or make tea.