Hot water
Hot water can be a substantial energy cost for some businesses, such as dairy farms, meat processors, accommodation providers and many others.
If you're using a lot of hot water in your business, you may make significant gains from improving the efficiency of your hot water use or considering alternative ways of heating water. Options include solar water heating and heat pump water heating.
Low cost or no cost actions
Nearly all businesses use hot water in staff kitchens and bathrooms. There are a number of easy, low-cost actions you can take to ensure your business’s small, local hot water systems are as energy efficient as possible.
- Set hot water cylinders at 60o C (55oC at the tap)
- Make sure the hot water boiler (the 'zip') in the kitchen is turned off outside of office hours
- Fit flow restrictors to high-use hot water taps
- Even if your electric hot water cylinder is a standard A Grade type, cover it with a hot water cylinder wrap
- Wrap the first couple of metres of hot water pipe from the cylinder, any high-use hot water pipes and external hot water pipes with pipe ‘lagging’.
Solar and heat pump water heating
Solar and heat pump water heating has the potential to reduce hot water heating costs for business. They are especially suited to businesses that use a lot of hot water.
Solar and heat pump water heating in action
Check out some of the innovative business and community projects being developed in New Zealand, using solar and heat pump water heating.
