Following are three, unavoidable truths: Energy costs are going to go up in the future. Water will be scarce. And my water heater is about to die.

The solution would be easy: get a new, tankless (”on demand”) water heater (I thought about just going with cold showers but my girlfriend wasn’t so keen on that). They save energy, use less water (you don’t run the tap so long to get the hot water), they even take up less space. Add to that, a store in Santa Monica is running a sale that let’s you pre-order a heater for when you need it at a 20% discount. It turns out that you get a $300 tax break in 2009 with this kind of home energy investment. Overall, the savings would be $500 or $600