Using Household Appliances to Save Energy in Your Home
According to Eartheasy, a web site dedicated to green living, “the average home actually causes more air pollution than the average car,” and the EPA agrees. Refrigerators and air conditioners contain dangerous chemicals like HCFC-22 that can remain the air for quite some time. Home furnaces and boilers produce sulfur dioxide, a dangerous air pollutant that can cause respiratory problems. Additionally, indoor air pollution is degraded as wellTo make matters worse, Environmental Science and Technology, with its July 2004 announcement of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Program, reported that the EPA noticed no significant difference in efficiency when comparing old and new buildings.
So, since time and technology have not improved electrical efficiency within homes, the best way to deal with the problem is mom’s old-fashioned way-modifying our behavior. But this doesn’t mean we have to shiver through winters, sweat through summers, or read at night by candlelight! Instead, it just takes a little knowledge and determination. While remembering to turn out the lights is an important step, those who are serious about saving money and stopping air pollution need to look to what uses the most energy in a home-the electrical appliances.
The first step toward using appliances more efficiently is simple. Just turn them off when you don’t need them! This is especially important when considering appliances that use a large amount of energy like heaters and air conditioners. Though it can be difficult to remember at first, try not to leave a large appliance running if you are not in the same room with it. Certain appliances like central heating and air conditioning can be turned down to a low level when they are not needed.
Just by studying the difference in energy bills from August, October, and January, if you live in a state with four typical seasons, you can see how important it is to turn off the appliances that suck up the most energy. Those air conditioners and heaters use quite a bit of juice, costing you quite a bit of cash.
Once you’ve begun to remember to turn your appliances off when they are not being used, the second step is unplugging them. When an appliance is plugged in, even if it is switched off, electricity is flowing to it. Unplugging appliances will ensure that energy is not flowing to them when it is not needed. To make matters easier, you can plug all appliances into a strip, which can be switched on or off or unplugged easily. For example, kitchen appliances do not need to be plugged in when they are not being used. Things like toasters, bread machines, and blenders can be stored in the cabinet when not being used. This not only clears up counter space, but also saves on the electricity that would be flowing to these appliances if they were plugged in. The kitchen also presents some great ways for saving electricity by using hand appliances rather than electrical ones.. This doesn’t mean you have to go back to the stone age, but you just might find that using a whisk instead of a mixer saves electricity, makes a better blended bowl of brownie batter, and gives you a stronger upper arm. As mom urged us to turn off our lights, we can help raise the unplugging generation by asking our housemates to turn out their lights and unplug their appliances before leaving each day!
But what about appliances that must always stay plugged in like refrigerators, dish washers, and washing machines with plugs in hard to reach places? This brings us to the third step in reducing the energy requirements of appliances-buying electrically efficient appliances. While the EPA confirmed that modern homes were not being built more efficiently, even this cloud has a silver lining.
Appliances are being built much more efficiently when it comes to using energy. In fact, the Natural Resources Defense Council says, “today’s major appliances don’t hog energy the way older models do because they must meet minimum federal energy efficiency standards.” So, though you might think the older model, garage sale bargain refrigerator is a steal, it is really you, and the earth, who are being robbed. “For instance,” the NRDC says, ” if you buy one of today’s most energy-efficient refrigerators, it will use less than half the energy of a model that’s 12 years old or older.”
On December 14, 2006 the California Energy Commission adopted appliance efficiency regulations that apply to everything from air conditioners to freezers. Among other stipulations, the requirements mandated that energy efficiency information be readily available and that appliance salespeople be able to perform energy efficiency testing. Laws like these are a good indication that congresswomen and men across the country are beginning to understand that there is more to ending air pollution than finding alternative fuel sources. The laws also make it easier for consumers to choose the kinds of appliances that perform most efficiently.
Though the best way of doing this is simply comparing the energy efficiency information included in the item’s packaging, and often listed online, the Natural Resources Defense Council offers some tips for shopping for the right appliance like looking for the Energystar insignia, which denotes the product as the most energy efficient in its class as determined by the Environmental Protection Agency. Other tips include purchasing smaller sized appliances, natural gas fueled electronics, and front-loading washing machines that do not require as much water, and, therefore, not as much power to heat the water.
If you are paying your utility bills, and living in a rental, your landlord probably won’t be keen on replacing your appliances, but by employing small steps like turning off, unplugging, and using smaller appliances, everyone can reduce their energy bills as well as energy dependency and air pollution.
