A few years ago I couldn't figure out why my hot water always seemed short. Turns out that all the pretty new taps installed in the house were the hot water theives. These are the models that have a single handle to select cold/hot mix. Everyone left it in the middle, so every time a tap was opened, hot water was running.

I went to each tap and installed the little half turn valves underneath and now leave the hot water to these closed, wife happy she has pretty taps, me happy cos no hot water running when used. If we need to use hot water, then it is quite simple just to turn the valve on per tap, use and then turn off again.

My solar panel started leaking about 5 months back and without money to replace, I had to bypass and started using a timer about 3 months back. With a 150l and only turning on for 2 x 1hr periods per day (@70 degrees) I am saving 4kW/day vs No timer and set at 40 degrees.