GreenPropertyManagement.com

Water Heater Under Wraps

Posted on 23. Jun, 2010 by Jennifer Marcus Newton in Greener Properties

A few weeks before my husband and I closed on our property, the home inspector we’d hired noted a strange noise coming from inside the hot water heater. We passed this information along to the then-owners, who insisted it was all a bunch of hullabaloo. A few days later, the heater gave out and they had to replace it.

That was about 5 years ago. And shamefully, we hadn’t yet gotten around to insulating what we still referred to as the “new water heater.” In the years we’ve put off this small task, we’ve wasted a significant amount of energy and some serious cash. So to make up for lost time, we invited the Home Energy Squad, a team of contractors who specialize in energy efficiency, to do a comprehensive energy audit of our property, which included wrapping our water heater with an insulation blanket.

To be completely honest, I rarely even dusted the top of the water heater, a fact that was painfully obvious during the energy audit. “How embarrassing,” I muttered in front of the contractor, as I brushed my hand across the top. I admit that I could be a better steward of my property’s mechanicals. But I should have been far more embarrassed about my apparent ambivalence towards conserving resources at home by not making my water heater energy efficient.

Adding insult to injury, our dusty water heater didn’t display its R-value anywhere on the tank’s label. (Before you ask, the heater wasn’t that dusty.) The contractor was able to estimate the R-value to be an R-6 or R-7, based on its 40-gallon capacity and the fact that it is about 5 years old. I wasn’t impressed with the low R-value, but I was quickly reassured that adding an insulation blanket with an R-value of R-11 would raise the overall R-value to roughly R-17. We were getting warmer.

I stood transfixed as the contractor, like a tailor of yore, unrolled the insulation and held it up against the heater. In no time at all, he was taping it into place and expertly cutting out areas to provide access to critical valves and to prevent blockage of a vent on the side. He paused for a moment to explain how critical this part was — blocking a vent could be very dangerous, he cautioned. I told him it was duly noted.

Be careful you don’t block vents or other critical access points on your water heater when you install an insulation blanket.

The blanket was a little different than I’d imagined — it was all function and no form. Did it adequately insulate the 40-gallon water heater and raise the R-value by R-11? Yes. Would it drape stylishly on the camelback sofa in the living room? No. My curiosity risking me further embarrassment, I asked if throwing an afghan around a water tank would raise the R-value at all. I was told that it might increase the rating by one or two points, but not as much as a purpose-built insulation blanket. So much for repurposing Aunt Betty’s afghan.

When I asked if normal folks could install an insulation blanket as easily, he said that it was not only possible — it was common. “What if someone has difficulty getting a tablecloth on straight?” I probed. Not only is installing an insulation blanket easy to do, he explained, it was relatively cheap, especially when compared to the cumulative savings.

As the contractor smoothed the blanket into place, he shared with me how gratifying his work was, particularly when he was able to provide guidance to low-income renters who might not otherwise have access to an energy efficiency audit. He went on to explain that renters in my area of the world who receive energy assistance can request a subsidized energy audit of the rental property they live in. They just need the property owner’s consent. Of course, any property owner can request an energy audit, just like (according to the contractor) anybody can easily install an insulation blanket. The jury is still out about the tablecloth, however.

Learn more about insulating a water heater here: www.energysavers.gov.

Have you ever attempted to install an insulation blanket?

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Tags: Energy Efficient, Green Living