How to Buy Efficient Appliances for the Home
Every home appliance has two costs: the price tag and the utility bill to run it. For some energy wasting products, the cost to run the product may be many times greater than the purchase cost. Although some energy efficient products may have a higher price tag, they often pay for themselves in energy savings.
Furnaces
In addition to buying an ENERGY STAR qualified furnace, before buying a new furnace, hire a contractor to run a heat-loss, heat-gain calculation to accurately size the new furnace. The report should take into account:
• Size and configuration of the home;
• Levels of insulation in walls, ceilings and between floors;
• Number and type of windows in the home;
• Orientation of the home to the sun.
Clothes Washers
Homeowners can dramatically save energy and water. High efficiency models are available in both front and top loading configurations. High efficiency washers tend to spin at faster cycles than conventional machines, removing more water from the clothes, which reduces the amount of time and energy required for drying clothes.
Clothes Dryers
Clothes dryers, one of the most expensive home appliances to operate, accountg for about 6% of total electricity usage. To minimize annual operation costs, choose a clothes dryer with moisture sensors in the drum for sensing dryness. With a moisture sensor, your dryer will turn off when the humidity in the drum is removed. Compared with timed drying, you can save about 10% with a temperature sensing control and 15% with a moisture sensing control.
Dishwashers
New dishwasher designs have reduced water use by including more efficient washing cycles and controls that allow you to tailor each wash to the specific characteristics of the load. You can save $25 to $35 a year in energy costs by replacing a 10-year-old dishwasher with an ENERGY STAR model. In addition, you can save more than 1,000 gallons of water.
Refrigerators
Compared to a 20-year-old refrigerator, a new, more efficient refrigerator will use 60% less electricity on average and save you as much as $120 per year. A new refrigerator will use about 40% less electricity than a 10-year-old unit.
Water Heaters
Consider replacing any water heater more than 10 years old. The last two digits of the heater’s serial number usually is the year of manufacture. In addition to many utilities offering rebates on new, energy-efficient models, are vastly more energy efficient. Water heater efficiency is reported in terms of the energy factor (EF). The higher the EF, the more efficient the water heater.
