Sometimes you can get really creative when the situation requires it. Here is a great tip I learned from someone who had temporarily run out of heating oil. Fortunately it was in the summer, so there was no fear of freezing to death. Unfortunately, because it was during the summer, there was no rush for the oil company to rectify the situation immediately, leaving the family without hot water for two days.
While they could heat hot water on the stove as necessary, this method was cumbersome and no doubt cost them some money to run their stove so often. That is when the family got a brilliant idea of obtaining free hot water. This is what they did.
The family gathered a bunch of plastic gallon milk jugs from their recycling bin (and they asked their neighbors for extras). Then they took the jugs and painted them black on the outside with some leftover spray paint. After the paint dried, they filled the jugs with water and set them out into the sun. Thanks to solar energy, the water in the jugs warmed right up. In fact, the water got very hot. They then used this water to wash dishes, wash clothes and more.
They liked the idea of getting all of this hot water for free that they still have their solar heaters in use all of the time. I bet that if you really wanted to save money, you could adapt this idea to supply larger amounts of hot water for your home. Not only will you be saving money, but you would be helping the environment. I think that I am going to try this one out.
Because of all of the new information about bacteria in sun tea, I probably wouldn’t use this free hot water for drinking. But it would be fine for washing bodies, clothes, floors, and dishes.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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