Here’s another few hints for saving money, or time, or energy, or any combination of these three valuable things. The following hints concern savings in utilities, but with a little imagination we can use saving ideas with anything around the house or office. With the current state of affairs in this society, it is probably wise to get as many good ideas as possible for saving money, energy, and time; we may not have a lot of any of these things left. Just like the old adage of shutting the barn door before the horse runs out – not after he runs out – all of us are smart to prepare for a time when we may not have the luxury to enjoy that which we have become accustomed.

1. Sleeve the pipes. Your water heater has pipes that carry the hot water to your faucets. When the weather is cold, the metal pipes (they’re usually copper) allow the heat in the water to dissipate into the surrounding air. You will have to run the heater for a longer period of time to compensate for this heat loss. A better idea is to buy foam sleeves that are made to fit over these pipes. The sleeves are split on one side and easily conform to the standard size pipes used in all installations. They are fairly inexpensive, about two dollars for a ten foot length. You can cut them with a knife, or scissors, or tear them with  your hands. Cover the pipes completely, using duct tape to cover the space from one piece of insulation to the next and wherever you suspect bare metal pipe to be exposed to the air. If your pipes are made of plastic, the same insulation should be used. Heat loss is heat loss, no matter the material used.

In basements, where heating pipes go under the main floor to connect one baseboard to another, be sure to cover all copper tubing. If a pipe runs along an outside wall (most do) and there is a pin hole leak to the outside, there is a possibility that cold air could freeze a small area of tubing. If this happens, your circulator will run forever, your heater will shut down and your house will remain cold. You will never figure out the problem unless you investigate every inch of your heating system. To avoid all that waste and discomfort, insulate all the pipes in your heating system during the summer, when the system is not used. You don’t want to deal with frozen pipes (that could burst) while you and your family are shivering.

2. Use Mother Nature’s energy. Whenever possible, use the sun to heat your home or to heat your bath water. Open drapes and curtains to let in sunlight to heat the inside air. This will give your heating system a break. Another trick to use solar power for heating is to construct (or purchase) a roof top collector. This device can be made from empty soda cans and copper tubing from a lumber yard. It is positioned where it will get maximum exposure to the sun’s rays. It is put in line with your regular heating system to partially heat the water. In so doing, your system doesn’t have to work so hard to heat your water. This saves energy and money.

3. Install a programmable thermostat. Sometimes we can forget to lower the room temperature at night. The result: higher energy costs. Installing a programmable thermostat will allow us to set all the temperatures for the day at once. We can set it to the ideal temperatures to save money and we will never forget. We can expect to save several hundred dollars every year with this one, simple operation.