Hey Tim, yes I do use a pleated filter on my furnace already. I never buy any of that blue fiberglass.

Ya, the time to tap for the heat is definitly improved over not having the insulation on. My wife, who is on mat leave so she's home all the time, said the hot water is definitely coming out faster so we end up using less water.

Has anyone done this to a gas hot water heater? I am thinking about this, but am just worried that since the top is not insulated, how much better can it be?

Thanks,

LDJ

The kit I purchased was made in such a way that you could leave the top off, but to me, if you don't cover the top, then you're still losing a lot of heat. So I'm not sure how much it would help with a gas hot water tank.

Maybe some kind of metal heat reflector?

Wonder what the wife would approve of...

Higgy,

You should also insulate the cold water pipe within 1m of the hot water heater. Convenction currents get set up -- you'll probably notice that the cold water pipe is warm too.

I know I'm digging this one up from way in the past.

I also have one of those swordfish UV lights in my furnace. It is only really effective at killing things when the fan on the furnace is running which is less then 10% of the time at the most in my case. So since the light uses 30ish watts sitting there purifying the exact same bit of air 90% of the time I spoke with a friend in the control systems industry. After looking at the wiring diagrams for my heatpump/furnace he hooked me up with a 24V-110 relay and I poked around with a multimeter while my wife turned the fan on and off at the controls until I found the right lead.

I then wired the relay to turn on when the fan turns on. Then I cut the wire going to the Light and switched one lead on it with the relay.

Anyways the end result is my light only turns on when the furnace fan is running. which should roughly save me just shy of $20/year and should greatly extend the life expectancy of those bulbs.

If your fan happens to be 110V you can probably just tap power directly off of it and not need the relay.

Nice mod! It really makes me wonder why stuff like this isn't doneby the factory. Install is slightly more complex, but just makes sense.

What kind of improvement have you noticed from insulating the water heater?

I'm the newest member of the HWH Insulaters' Club.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5049/...c103b808_b.jpg

Home Depot sells a kit claiming R13 from ~3" of vinyl-backed fiberglass. I think it was $15. Not sure how that compares to the Kraft-backed stuff a few aisles over.

The blanket fit perfectly on my HWH, which is more barrel-shaped than most. It's a gas HWH, so I left a gap around its base for combustion air, didn't cover the top, and made a cutaway for the pilot light access and the controls.

I think my HWH already had well above average insulation, but now it's that much better.

It looks like you could use some insulation on the water pipes.