Plumbing Alterations to Save Money

Plumbing and electrical to save you money

You probably didn’t think that plumbing, electrical and Gas fitting was likely to save you money, but energy is expensive and these trades are responsible for installing and maintaining appliances that use lots of energy. If we ensure efficient and well maintained appliances are used then you can save lot of money over the years.

Energy we can save is for water heating, space heating, cooking, and lighting.

• Upgrading your hot water pressure to high pressure can cost around $600 per year in increased energy costs due to more hot water used. A water efficient shower head will reduce that bill around $350 year.
• A situation where a gas storage water heater was considered instead of a continuous flow would save money where a lot of hot water was used. If only a small amount of hot water is used then a continuous flow will be cheaper to run due to no heat loss. There are some continuous flow water heaters that have much larger heat ex changers and are condensing due to the large amount of heat extracted.
• Use of a conventional water heater costs around $1500 per year to run. Installing a shower heat recovery system will save money.
• Heat pump water heaters have around a three to five year payback.
• Fit a cylinder wrap if you have an older tank. This insulates your tank and reduces heat loss which is expensive over the long term.
• Insulate the piping around hot water heaters.
• Use small LPG bottles to supply gas to cooking appliances rather that piped gas to the property and save on the line charge if that is the only appliance using gas. It pays to use piped gas if using large quantities as its cheaper.

Is it Cheaper to turn off the hot water tank when not using it and then turn it on again when you need it?

That is the age old question. It was often thought that it cost more to reheat the tank than was lost. This proved to be a myth. Testing revealed that the heat losses were higher and it was more efficient to leave the tank as cold as possible until it was needed. Now there is a tank that will do this trick automatically.

It’s called a Smart Tank by Coopers Tanks owned by Rinnai.

Central Heating Selection

Select 6 and 7 star gas furnaces for lowest running costs.

Eco Light Bulbs

Select LED bulbs.

Ensure you use heaters with thermostats and preferably timers.

Heat Pump Dryers. We can connect up the condensate line to the laundry tub waste. So no emptying the condensation tank.