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Forest and Bird, Volume 22, Issue 2, 1 May 1991, Page 8

Wrap up your Hot Water Cylinder Most people believe in energy efficiency But belief is not enough E we have to put HOW YOU CAN SAVE it into practice. Lack of factual information and uncertainty as to the existence of real benefits can be critical barriers to our implementing energy efficiency HOT WATER AND measures in our own homes_ The following is the first of four articles that will present you with the facts and outline the real benefits of specific energy efficiency YOUR WALLET TOO! measures that you can take. Hot Water Cylinder Wrap has been We have chosen electric hot water cylinder insulation wraps for our first example designed to enable the home Hot water was chosen as it iS usually the single largest domestic energy cost We will handyperson to increase the insulation show how you can reduce this cost both for your own and for the country S benefit. of an 'existing hot water cylinder: Your hot water system will use about 45% of your electricity: Nationally our hot The kit includes step-by-step water usage requires about 20% of the electricity generated in New Zealand. Of instructions, tape and a complementary this, roughly 20% is lost from the walls of electric hot water cylinders. knife. That means that about 4% of the electricity we generate per year iS lost from the walls of hot water cylinders. This is slightly more than 1,000 gigawatt hours or An Energy Management (Ministry of roughly equivalent to the annual output of the Wairakei geothermal power station Commerce) study indicated savings This heat loss costs consumers in the order of 8120,000,000 per year: ranging from 817 to 887 per year (with an Tests conducted by Energy Management, Ministry of Commerce, indicate that approximate fitting : an insulation wrap to older 'cylinders or new cylinders that don t meet the average saving 1988 insulation standard, will reduce heat loss by up to a half: of 850) for a If half of these pre-1988 standard cylinders were fitted with an insulation wrap, the 135 litre Reduce Your WaTER HEATING COSTS BY saving would amount to approximately 135 gigawatt hours. This is about as much cylinder: UP To 20% AND HEAI LOSS BY 51% power as would be required to heat water for 100 million showers. It also keeps HOT [ So you can see that a little saving by enough individuals can easily add up to a lot hot water nationally Insulating our nation S hot water cylinders is clearly good for our hotter for Water 1 country longer in case Cylinder 6 Best of all it saves you money: Tests conducted by Energy Management found a of winter cuts range of annual savings from 817 to 887 for 135 litre hot water cylinders The saving to heating: WRAP varies depending on individual circumstances Situations where cylinders are poorly insulated, set at a high temperature and located in a cold draughty place give the Hot Water Cylinder Wrap 1 greatest saving: is available Ready-to-go insulation wrap kits are available for a recommended retail price of from major 875. Based on the above test results, the wrap will, on average, pay for itself in 18 building supply months. At the best, it may pay for itself in less than a year and at the very worst it companies and will pay for itself in five years. So you see, you can t lose. Further savings can be insulation 1 obtained by insulating the first few metres of pipe from the cylinder: Foam tubing is specialists. ideal but offcuts from the wrap also work well: 2 For Electric CYLINDERS ONLY: SO THERE IT IS! GO TO IT For further information please . contact: Christopher Turbott Energy Management Ministry of Commerce PO Box 4218, Auckland Energy or Telephone (09) 775 328 Management