Turn off your hot water cylinder and save money?

August 17th, 2011

At the Wellington Advice Centre, we have had a couple of enquiries from people wanting to know if its worth turning off the hot water cylinder even if only going away for a day or so.

Its an interesting question! In theory, turning off the cylinder will always save you some money (as the heat losses to the surrounding air are proportional to the temperature of the water.)

You should make more savings from avoiding the heat losses than the energy taken to heat it up again.

The only downside is the inconvenience of having to wait while the water heats up again, which is why most of us don’t bother.

If you regularly turn off your hot water cylinder we would be interested to know what your experiences have been, does it help reduce power bills?

P.S. Don’t forget that regardless, its important to have your cylinder wrapped (even if it is a modern “A grade” cylinder this can save you money in the long term) and you should lag at least the first metre of hot water pipe.

Sarah, Advice Centre Wellington