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Thermostats
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If you're looking to reduce your energy consumption, but don't want to invest a whole lot of money upgrading your home with insulation, double-paned windows, and other energy-efficient appliances, you can make a small yet effective start by replacing your old manual thermostat with a simple programmable thermostat. Programmable thermostats can easily save you a lot of money on your heating costs, by managing the heat settings for you automatically.
While we all do our best to turn the heat down at night, often we neglect this simple task, leading to higher heating costs. But with a programmable thermostat, you can apply several settings that can adjust your room temperatures for when you leave for work, when you come home, when you get up, and when you go to sleep, maximizing your heating efficiency without the mundane task of constantly adjusting the heat settings. These simple devices, which can also manage your air conditioning and ventilation, can reduce costs up to 30%, making the small investment pay for itself in a very short time.
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Water Heaters
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Tankless heaters can ideally be somewhat more efficient than storage water heaters. In both kinds of installation (centralized and POU) the absence of a tank saves energy as conventional water heaters have to reheat the water in the tank as it cools off, called standby loss. With a central water heater of any type, water is wasted waiting for water to heat up because of the cold water in the pipes between the faucet and the water heater.
Point of use tankless water heaters are located right where the water is being used, so the water is almost instantly hot, which saves water. They also save even more energy than centrally installed tankless water heaters because no hot water is left in the pipes after the water is shut off. However, point of use tankless water heaters are usually used in combination with a central water heater since they are usually limited to under 6 litres/minute (1.5 U.S. gallons/minute), as the expense of buying a heater for every kitchen, laundry room, bathroom, or sink can outweigh the money saved in water and energy bills. In addition, point of use water heaters until recently were almost always electrical, and electricity is often substantially more expensive than natural gas.
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