The hot water issue

Today I’ve spent the whole day at home, so I decided to keep track of my energy consumes, trying to reduce them. I woke up and I’ve opted for a colder breakfast, but I couldn’t do without my warm coffee, so I’ve just heated up the mug in the microwave for one minute, which is 0,017 kWh. I’ve charged my phone just once, consuming 0,0144 kWh and also my laptop needed to be recharged, consuming 0,135 kWh.

I’ve spent the rest of the morning working at my desk, then it was time for lunch. I had a salad, which didn’t require any energy to be cooked, but I really wanted a slice of bread to do with it, so I’ve used the toaster, consuming 0,06 kWh. Since I was about to switch on the toaster, I did not want to consume the same amount of energy for one slice when I could toast two together. So I thought I would take the opportunity and toast two together. After lunch I went back to work, but during the day I was feeling cold, so I wanted to have a hot tea, and I’ve used the kettle, consuming 0,036 kWh, a consumption I could have avoided by boiling water in a small pot.

After my evening yoga class, I got back home and I took a shower. The hot water in my flat is supplied by an electric boiler that consumes 1200 W, and it takes around 2 hours to heat 50 L of water. It means that for one shower my consume is 2,4 kWh. This is a very large amount of energy compared to other consumption, but this is something I find difficult to do without.

That’s why I started thinking of other ways to reduce energy consumption without taking colder showers. In fact, the boiler is still an electronic device, always connected to the plug. I have not been able to find a way to calculate its consumption just to maintain the water temperature, but in any case, a good practice would be to unplug it when I am not using it, which would also mean carefully planning the use of the boiler so as not to end up with a cold shower. Legambiente estimates that an electric water heater runs for 6 hours a day, which would mean that my daily energy consumption related to the water heater is not 2.4 kWh, but rather 7.2 kWh. Planning the use of hot water could help in saving almost 5 kWh. I feel like it could be a very good starting point!