Home › Issues › Energy Efficiency & Global Warming › Learn about your Carbon Footprint › Take a Whole House Approach

Replace older appliances with energy-efficient models

Wed, 12/26/2007 - 1:09am — efadmin

Appliances such as your refrigerator, clothes washer and dryer, dishwasher and electronics (TV, computer, audio and video systems, etc.) account for about 20% of your household’s annual energy bill. "Together, these items account for nearly eight tons of heat-trapping emissions per household per year."

When shopping for a new appliance, look for the ENERGY STAR label. ENERGY STAR products usually exceed minimum federal standards by a substantial amount. The ENERGY STAR label should not be confused with the bright yellow and black EnergyGuide label – the federal government requires this label to be displayed on most new appliances, and the label provides information about the energy efficiency of a particular appliance. Although these labels will not tell you which appliance is the most efficient, they will tell you the annual energy consumption and operating cost for each appliance so you can compare them yourself. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy lists the energy performance of top-rated energy-saving appliances on its web site: http://www.aceee.org/.

Replacing older appliances with new, energy-efficient models can provide substantial reductions in both your energy costs and your CO2 footprint. "Replacing a dishwasher manufactured before 1994 with an ENERGY STAR dishwasher can save you more than $25 a year in electric or natural gas costs." A dishwasher with an ENERGY STAR label uses up to 25% less energy than required by federal standards.

"The EnergyGuide label on new refrigerators will tell you how much electricity in kilowatt-hours (kWh) a particular model uses in one year. The smaller the number, the less energy the refrigerator uses and the less it will cost you to operate. In addition to the EnergyGuide label, don’t forget to look for the ENERGY STAR label. A new refrigerator with an ENERGY STAR label uses at least 15% less energy than required by current federal standards and 40% less energy than the conventional models sold in 2001."

Other refrigerator tips include:

  • Shopping for a refrigerator with automatic moisture control. Such models prevent moisture accumulation without the need for an "anti-sweat" heater, which will consume "5% to 10% more energy than models without this feature."
  • Not setting your refrigerator or freezer too cold. "Recommended temperatures are 37º to 40ºF for the fresh food compartment of the refrigerator and 5ºF for the freezer section. If you have a separate freezer for long-term storage, it should be kept at 0ºF."
  • Regularly defrosting manual-defrost refrigerators and freezers Frost buildup decreases the energy efficiency of the unit.
  • Ensuring your refrigerator door seals are airtight.
  • Covering liquids and wrapping foods to prevent the release of moisture which makes the compressor work harder.
  • Vacuuming the refrigerator’s condenser coils once a year (unless you have a no-clean condenser model) to save on energy.

Substantial cost and energy savings can also be realized in the area of a home office and home electronics. An increasing number of people work from home on a regular or periodic basis. Working from home greatly reduces the CO2 footprint caused by driving or commuting to work. However, it could cause a substantial increase in your home energy bills unless you invest in or use energy-saving office equipment.

"ENERGY STAR office equipment is widely available: it provides users with dramatic savings, as much as 90% savings for some products. Overall, ENERGY STAR office products use about half the electricity of standard equipment. Along with saving energy directly, this equipment can reduce air-conditioning loads, noise from fans and transformers, and electromagnetic field emissions from monitors."

A substantial amount of energy, and hence cost, is wasted by leaving appliances on when not in use. "Common misconceptions sometimes account for the failure to turn off equipment. Many people believe that equipment lasts longer if it is never turned off. This incorrect perception carries over from the days of older mainframe computers. . . . There is a common misconception that screen savers reduce energy use by monitor; they do not. Automatic switching to sleep mode or manually turning monitors off is always the better energy-saving strategy."

Wasting power by leaving home electronics on when not using them is costly and needlessly increases your carbon dioxide footprint. In addition, many appliances continue to draw power even when they are switched off; so-called "phantom" loads, which can be found in items such as VCRs, TVs, stereos, computers, and kitchen appliances.

"In the average home, 75% of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off." "Add that all up, and it equals the annual output of 17 power plants, the government says." A good solution to this problem is plugging appliances into a power strip and using the switch on the power strip to cut all power to the appliance.

If you choose to leave home electronics on for periods of time, products that idle in a reduced power mode are preferable to those that do not, but even those products can waste significant amounts of energy. "Products that idle in what the industry calls low-power mode, or lopomo, consumed about 10 percent of total electricity in California homes, according to a 2002 study prepared for the California Energy Commission by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory."


References:
‹ Seal air leaksupInstall energy-efficient windows ›