In the decade I spent outside the United States, none of the homes I lived in had hot water instantly available 24 hours a day. The hot water storage tanks were small, and when they were empty, that batch of hot water was gone. To get more, you had to turn on the hot water heater, and wait at least a half hour for enough water to accumulate in the tank to take a decent shower, or do a sink’s worth of dishes.

This took some getting used to initially, but once I got in the habit of only heating the water that I’d use right away, the idea of having a giant tank that not only stores a large amount of hot water, but keeps it heated around the clock sounded a) luxurious, and b) extremely expensive. Now that I’m back in the U.S., I can confirm that I was correct on both counts. Fortunately, there’s a way we can help our hot water heater keep its tank of water at the right temperature without having to use quite so much energy: Wrapping it in a special insulating blanket. Let’s get cozy.

What is a hot water heater blanket?

A hot water heater blanket—also known as a jacket—is exactly what it sounds like: A sheet of insulation made from fiberglass, foam, foil, or a combination of materials that wraps around a hot water heater’s tank to help it maintain its temperature. With less heat escaping from the tank, the hot water heater won’t have to use as much energy to keep the water inside of it hot.

These insulating blankets are especially useful if your hot water heater is located in your basement—as opposed to in a utility closet on or above the ground floor—because it’s probably colder down there, and therefore would need to use more energy to keep the water hot inside the tank.

Recommended products:

• Reflecto-Foil Water Heater Jacket ($38.88)

• Frost King SP57/11C All Season Water Heater Insulation Blanket ($30.47)

• SmartJACKET Water Heater Insulation Blanket ($47.85)

• Reach Barrier 3016 Water Heater Insulation Kit ($33.73)

• US Energy NASATECH Water Heater Insulation Jacket Kit ($44.44)

What is an R-value?

When looking at hot water heater blankets, or even your tank itself, you may come across a rating called an R-value, which is determined by how effective an insulating material is at resisting heat flow. The better the insulation, the higher the R-value.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), your hot water heater tank itself should have an R-value of at least 24. You can usually find the R-value on a sticker on the tank or in the owner’s manual, but if you can’t, carefully touch the outside of the tank: If it’s hot or warm, it likely needs to be insulated—but the DOE recommends insulating it even if it’s not.

Do hot water heater blankets really work?

By the DOE’s calculations, your hot water heater blanket should pay for itself in roughly a year. This is because the agency estimates that insulating your hot water heater’s tank can reduce its standby heat losses by between 25 and 45%, which should translate to a savings of approximately seven to 16% in water-heating costs.

Although most of these blankets indicate that they’re safe to use on the tanks of both electric and gas-powered hot water heaters, according to the DOE’s website, “most experts agree that heat loss in a gas water heater goes up the flue,” so a blanket “accomplishes no purpose for these types of heaters.” That said, others have pointed out that if your gas hot water heater is old, and the tank isn’t well insulated, a blanket should help at least a little—just be sure not to cover the flue, or have any part of the blanket touching the bottom of the heater (or wherever the flame is located).

Lastly, the DOE also recommends checking your local codes and utility company regulations before purchasing or installing an insulation blanket, as they’re prohibited in some areas.

What to consider when buying a hot water heater blanket

The biggest decision you’ll have to make when purchasing a hot water heater blanket is whether or not to get one made from fiberglass. While fiberglass is the thickest and most effective type of insulation for a hot water tank, it’s also messy, shedding little fibers that go everywhere and are dangerous to breathe in (so you need to wear a face mask when working with it). It’s also uncomfortable and itchy to touch.

If you’d prefer avoiding fiberglass, you can get a hot water heater blanket made from a combination of foil, foam, and (special) bubble wrap. It’s not as effective as fiberglass, but it’s easier (and less uncomfortable) to install.

Most hot water heater blankets cost somewhere between $30 and $50 and are easy to install yourself, especially because they typically come pre-cut to fit your tank, often as part of a kit, along with heat-resistant tape, step-by-step instructions, and sometimes even a small knife for trimming any excess insulation. Here are a few of my favorites:

Reflecto-Foil Water Heater Jacket ($38.88): This kit comes with enough material to cover a 40-gallon tank, but a larger kit is also available. In addition to the reflective foil and tape, a small utility knife is also included.

Frost King SP57/11C All Season Water Heater Insulation Blanket ($30.47): This three-inch-thick vinyl-backed fiberglass blanket provides the superior insulation of fiberglass, but with less shedding than other products made from the material. It’s supposed to fit hot water tanks as large as 60 gallons, but in practice, it can be hard getting it to fit tanks that hold more than 50 gallons (unless you want to really stretch it out).

SmartJACKET Water Heater Insulation Blanket ($47.85): Made from 99% aluminum foil, this insulating blanket is designed to fit most 20- to 80-gallon hot water heater tanks. 

Reach Barrier 3016 Water Heater Insulation Kit ($33.73): This kit comes with a pre-cut panel of foil-covered bubble wrap insulation and temperature-resistant tape, making installation quick and easy.

US Energy NASATECH Water Heater Insulation Jacket Kit ($44.44): This non-fiberglass insulation kit comes with 42-square-feet of material, which should fit most 20- to 80-gallon tanks. 

Be sure to take measurements of your hot water heater tank before making a purchase: These blankets aren’t one-size-fits-all.

Source: LifeHacker – You Should Swaddle Your Electric Hot Water Heater in an Insulating Blanket

Walking is one of the more accessible forms of exercise. Not only can you do it without special equipment or memberships, you may even already get your steps in without formally considering it to be a workout. But how fast do you have to walk for it to “count” toward improving your health? New research may have an answer. 

The meta-analysis, published this week in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, compared the risk of type 2 diabetes for people who walked at different speeds. (In many cases, people were asked to report how fast they walked; in others, they wore activity trackers like Fitbits or completed a timed walking test at a clinic visit.) Here’s how they categorized the various walking speeds: 

• Easy or casual walking: less than 2 miles per hour (30:00 per mile)

• Average or normal walking: 2-3 miles per hour (20:00-30:00 per mile). This corresponds to the 3 mph that Google Maps uses to estimate travel time when they give you walking directions.

• Fairly brisk walking: 3-4 miles per hour (15:00-20:00 per mile)

• Brisk/striding walking: 4 miles per hour or faster (15:00 per mile)

Many people find that 4 miles per hour is about the fastest they can walk without breaking into a run. (This will, of course, depend on personal factors like how long your legs are.) 

In this analysis, people who walked at an average or “fairly brisk” pace were less likely to develop type 2 diabetes later. (The average follow-up time period was eight years.) The faster people walked, the better, with brisk/striding walking being associated with a 39% lower risk of type 2 diabetes compared to easy or casual walking.

Based on these results, you’d want to walk faster than 2 miles per hour, if you can. (2.5 miles per hour is the speed that’s usually considered to count as “moderate” intensity exercise.) But the authors note that their results are of “low to moderate certainty, mainly from studies with a high risk of bias,” which means we might need to take them with a grain of salt.

Why does walking speed matter?

This isn’t the first study to compare walking speed to health outcomes. Previous studies have found that people who walk faster are less likely to have strokes, to die of cardiovascular disease, or to develop cognitive decline or dementia. 

But does walking protect you, or is it just a sign that you’re already healthy? Possibly both. 

A group of physical therapists wrote in a 2015 review that “Not only is [walking speed] indicative of an individual’s functional capacity and general health status, the measure has been shown to be predictive of a range of outcomes, including response to rehabilitation, functional dependence, frailty, mobility disability , cognitive decline, falls, institutionalization, hospitalization, cardiovascular-related events and mortality, as well as all-cause mortality.”

In other words, it’s possible that walking speed is just a stand-in for overall health. If you’re too sick to walk very fast, your health may already be declining. But we also know that exercising is good for your health, and that exercising tends to make you better at exercising. 

Walking is cardio, after all, if you walk at an appropriate speed. If you don’t get much exercise, a normal walking speed of 2.5 miles per hour is enough to count as “moderate” exercise (the kind we should all do for at least 150 minutes a week, or about 20-30 minutes per day). Jogging or fast walking can count for some of your “vigorous” exercise minutes, which count double. 

Ultimately, we don’t have a perfect way to measure the amount of exercise necessary for health. Step counting has been a favorite because it’s easy to measure with a pedometer, a smartwatch, or even by keeping your phone in your pocket. Walking speed helps here, too: the faster you walk, the more steps you’ll get in. 

But still: we already know that 10,000 steps is a bullshit goal; the number of steps you need to improve your health ranges from 2,800 to 9.800, depending on which study you’re reading and how they defined their health-related outcomes. Most medical and fitness professionals will tell you that the more you can walk, the better—and that if you currently walk slowly, you’ll likely be able to walk faster as you become fitter. 

Source: LifeHacker – How Fast You Need to Walk to Get Real Health Benefits