This idea was posted on Saturday, June 9, 2007.

Most people thoughtlessly leave the water heater temperature set at its hottest setting.  Then, when they turn on the hot water knob, the water that comes out of the faucet is too hot to use.  Consequently, they dilute the hot water with cold water until they get the right temperature.  That requires that they use both knobs and adjust the temperature back and forth until they get the temperature that they want.  Of course, those adjustments affect the flow rate so then they'll have to adjust that.  When they try to adjust the flow rate, that changes the temperature.  What a mess.  While all of that adjustment is going on, they waste the water that runs down the drain while they're fiddling around with the knobs.  Worse yet, the rate of heat loss from the water heater itself increases with the temperature of the water in the water heater.  So, not only does it take more fuel to heat the water unnecessarily hot, it also takes more fuel again to keep it that hot.

I adjust the temperature setting on the water heater so that, when I turn on the hot water, the water comes out of the faucet at just the temperature that I want it to be when I use it.  I don't have to adjust anything.  I just turn on the hot knob if I want warm water and I turn on the cold knob if I want cold water.  Since I never need hot water, I'm happy.

Here's an extra tip at no extra cost.  When I start my "morning beautification process" in the bathroom every morning, I turn on the hot water knob when I want water.  At first, it comes out cold so I do first the things that I can comfortably do with cold water, like brushing my teeth.  While I'm using cold water from the hot water knob for that sort of thing, the water is warming up.  By the time that I'm ready to do something for which I want warm water, like washing my face for example, the water is warm.  Thus, I don't waste water by running it down the drain while I'm waiting for it to get warm.