Next to heating and cooling your home, heating the water your family uses eats up more energy than anything else. Here are several ways to cut down on your use of hot water, which could shave a few bucks off your energy bill.

• Take shorter showers. Set a timer for four minutes before you hop into the shower. You’ll have plenty of time to lather up and rinse off without wasting hot water.
• Wash dishes in the dishwasher instead of by hand. The dishwasher uses less energy and less water than hand-washing. It also does a better job of sanitizing dishes because it operates at higher temperatures than you typically get with hand-washing.
• Fix leaky faucets. That tiny drip—even at a rate of one drip per second—can add $35 per year to your energy bill and waste more than 1,600 gallons of water.
• Wash clothes in cold water. Most laundry detergents clean clothes just as well in cold or warm water as they do in hot water. Your clothes will get just as clean without the extra energy use.
• Wait until the dishwasher and the clothes washer are full before running them. The fewer loads you run, the less hot water you’ll use.
• Although some households like to set their water heater temperature to 140 degrees, most families are satisfied with a 120-degree setting, which is much safer.
• Try insulating your water heater tank with an insulating blanket. Combined with insulating exposed water heater pipes, the effort can increase water temperature 2–4 degrees, according to the Department of Energy. Find out more here: https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/do-it-yourself-savings-project-insulate-water-heater-tank.