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Appliances account for about 20% of your household's energy
consumption, with refrigerators and clothes dryers at the top of
the consumption list.
When you're shopping for appliances, you can think of two
price tags. The first one covers the purchase price – think
of it as a down payment. The second price tag is the cost of
operating the appliance during its lifetime. You'll be paying on
that second price tag every month with your utility bill for the
next 10 to 20 years, depending on the appliance. Refrigerators
last an average of 20 years; room air conditioners and
dishwashers, about 10 years each; clothes washers, about 14
years.
What's the
Real Cost
Every
appliance has two price tags – a purchase price and the
operating cost.
When you do have to shop for a new appliance, look
for the ENERGY STAR® label. ENERGY STAR® appliances have
been identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and
DOE as being the most energy-efficient products in their classes.
They usually exceed minimum federal standards by a substantial
amount. The appliance shopping
guide lists some of the major appliances that carry the
ENERGY STAR® label and provides helpful information on what
to look for when shopping for an appliance.
To help you figure out whether an appliance is energy
efficient, the federal government requires most appliances to
display the bright yellow and black EnergyGuide label. 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.
How Much
Electricity Do Appliances Use?
This chart shows
how much energy a typical appliance uses per year and its
corresponding cost based on national averages. For example, a
refrigerator uses almost five times the electricity the average
television uses.
Dishwashers
Most of the energy used by a dishwasher is for water heating.
The EnergyGuide label estimates how much power is needed per year
to run the appliance and to heat the water based on the yearly
cost of gas and electric water heating. When it is time to buy a
new unit, look for the ENERGY STAR® label.
Dishwasher Tips
• Check the manual that came with your dishwasher for the
manufacturer's recommendations on water temperature; many have
internal heating elements that allow you to set the water heater
to a lower temperature.
• Scrape, don't rinse, off large food pieces and bones.
Soaking or prewashing is generally only recommended in cases of
burned-on or dried-on food.
• Be sure your dishwasher is full, but not overloaded.
• Don't use the "rinse hold" on your machine
for just a few soiled dishes. It uses 3 to 7 gallons of hot water
each time you use it.
• Let your dishes air dry; if you don't have an automatic
air-dry switch, turn off the control knob after the final rinse
and prop the door open a little so the dishes will dry faster.
• Remember that dishwashers use less water than washing
dishes by hand, about 6 gallons less per load; dishwashers also
use hotter water than you would use if you were washing the
dishes by hand, so they can do a better job of killing germs.
Refrigerators
Refrigerator
Choices
Refrigerators
with the freezer on top are more efficient than those with
freezers on the side.
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 will save you between $35 and $70 a year compared
to the models designed 15 years ago. This adds up to between $525
and $1,050 during an average 15-year life of the unit.
Refrigerator/Freezer Energy Tips
• Look for a refrigerator with automatic moisture
control. Models with this feature have been engineered to prevent
moisture accumulation on the cabinet exterior without the
addition of a heater. This is not the same thing as an "anti-sweat"
heater. Models with an anti-sweat heater will consume 5% to 10%
more energy than models without this feature.
• Don't keep your refrigerator or freezer too cold.
Recommended temperatures are 37° to 40°F for the fresh
food compartment of the refrigerator and 5°F for the freezer
section. If you have a separate freezer for long-term storage, it
should be kept at 0°F.
• To check refrigerator temperature, place an appliance
thermometer in a glass of water in the center of the
refrigerator. Read it after 24 hours. To check the freezer
temperature, place a thermometer between frozen packages. Read it
after 24 hours.
• Regularly defrost manual-defrost refrigerators and
freezers; frost buildup increases the amount of energy needed to
keep the motor running. Don't allow frost to build up more than
one-quarter of an inch.
• Make sure your refrigerator door seals are airtight.
Test them by closing the door over a piece of paper or a dollar
bill so it is half in and half out of the refrigerator. If you
can pull the paper or bill out easily, the latch may need
adjustment or the seal may need replacing.
• Cover liquids and wrap foods stored in the
refrigerator. Uncovered foods release moisture and make the
compressor work harder.
• Move your refrigerator out from the wall and vacuum its
condenser coils once a year unless you have a no-clean condenser
model. Your refrigerator will run for shorter periods with clean
coils.
Other Energy-Saving Kitchen Tips
• Be sure to place the faucet lever on the kitchen sink
in the cold position when using small amounts of water; placing
the lever in the hot position uses energy to heat the water even
though it never reaches the faucet.
• If you need to purchase a gas oven or range, look for
one with an automatic, electric ignition system. An electric
ignition saves gas – typically 41% in the oven and 53% on
the top burners – because a pilot light is not burning
continuously.
• In gas appliances, look for blue flames; yellow flames
indicate the gas is burning inefficiently and an adjustment may
be needed.
• Keep range-top burners and reflectors clean; they will
reflect the heat better, and you will save energy.
• Use a covered kettle or pan to boil water; it's faster
and it uses less energy.
• Match the size of the pan to the heating element.
• If you cook with electricity, turn the stovetop burners
off several minutes before the allotted cooking time. The heating
element will stay hot long enough to finish the cooking without
using more electricity. The same principle applies to oven
cooking.
• Use small electric pans or toaster ovens for small
meals rather than your large stove or oven. A toaster oven uses a
third to half as much energy as a full-sized oven.
• Use pressure cookers and microwave ovens whenever it is
convenient to do so. They can save energy by significantly
reducing cooking time.
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When you cook a pot of rice for 1 hour, you use 1000 watts of
electricity! One thousand watts equals 1 kilowatt-hour, or 1
kWh. Your utility bill usually shows what you are charged for
the kilowatt-hours you use. The average residential rate is 8.3
cents per kWh. A typical U.S. household consumes about 10,000
kWh per year, costing an average of $830 annually. |
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The EnergyGuide label
gives you two important pieces of information you can use for
comparison of different brands and models when shopping for a new
refrigerator: 