| Vol. 8 | No. 4 | Fall 2006 |
 |
Close to Home
Three Home Energy Hogs |
Most homeowners don’t replace an appliance until it breaks, but old appliances could be costing you hundreds of dollars in avoidable energy costs—and contributing to global warming by emitting excess carbon dioxide. Replacing an older model of one of the three appliances listed below could help you achieve significant water, energy, and environmental savings.
Water Heaters
Your water heater is often the second-largest energy consumer in the home (after space heating and cooling), accounting for 13 percent or more of your annual energy costs. And most U.S. households have inefficient, poorly insulated storage tank heaters that work to keep an unnecessarily large volume of water hot all day and night; if your water heater is more than 10 years old it is probably operating at less than 50 percent efficiency.
While the U.S. Department of Energy does not currently certify water heaters under its Energy Star program, energy-efficient models are available. Consider a tankless design, or simply look for the highest Energy Factor number when comparing labels.
Refrigerators
Refrigerators, which have to run 24 hours a day, are the biggest energy consumer in the kitchen. New Energy Star-certified models, which sell for between $600 and $1,000, will use about half the energy of a 10-year-old conventional model and save about $35 in yearly energy costs. What’s more, if all U.S. households upgraded to Energy Star-rated refrigerators, more than 48 million metric tons of carbon dioxide would be kept out of the atmosphere.
To maximize your energy savings, choose an Energy Star-rated refrigerator that has the freezer on the top or bottom, which uses about 15 percent less energy than side-by-side models. (Top-freezer models cost less than bottom-freezer models.) Also, avoid through-the-door icemakers and water dispensers; while they reduce the need to open the door, they increase energy consumption 15 to 20 percent.
Clothes Washers
The majority of the energy consumed by a washing machine is used to heat water, and conventional top-loading washing machines use about 40 gallons of water per load. Energy Star-rated washers by comparison use about 25 gallons per load, a 40 percent savings in water that translates into an energy cost savings of approximately 50 percent.
Energy Star-rated washers do cost more up front—about $500 for top-loaders and $800 for front-loaders, compared with $300 for conventional models—but they save $50 or more each year in water and energy costs. Those savings will more than offset the additional up-front cost over the machine’s typical 11-year lifetime.
Short-term Costs, Long-term Benefits
Each appliance essentially has two price tags—the purchase price and the operating cost. Annual operating costs can be found on the yellow-and-black EnergyGuide label required on most appliances. By calculating the lifetime operating costs of an appliance, you might find that the model with the higher purchase price represents a better deal in the long run. And many rebates on Energy Star-rated appliances (or discounts on equipment installation) are available to sweeten the deal; ask your retailer or local utility.
To learn more about energy-efficient appliances, visit the Department of Energy’s Energy Star website.
Also in this issue of Earthwise:
Dialogue
Switchgrass is being touted as a promising energy resource. What is switchgrass and what is its potential?
