I lived in a relatively small house, growing up.

Not that I'm complaining. It was wonderful. Right?

There was, however, one problem.

We had one bathroom. For the seven of us. The Brady Bunch had it better.

Timing became very important.

But, that wasn't the bad part.

The bad part was, our house didn't have a water heater. I'm not kidding! I didn't even realize this, until a couple years ago (um, yeah).

We didn't even have a tankless water heater. Instead, it was one of those furnaces where the water went up past the furnace, heating it as it went by.

Tankless water heaters are somewhat better, especially these days.

Still, you have to deal with the fact that water isn't heated until you need it.

This saves you money, and it's good for the environment (less energy is used), but, man, hot water on demand is a pretty damn good thing, and worth paying for, don't you think?

When the days grow nippy, nothing beats a long, hot shower to warm things up. But at what expense? The Department of Energy says water heating accounts for 14% to 25% of the energy consumed in your home. Here are tips from the department for reducing your water heating bills:

Details: Tips for Saving Money On Your Hot-Water Bills - By Marshall Loeb, The Wall Street Journal Online