Given the rising price of petroleum, people are looking to free up some extra cash wherever they can, with big time users or electricity being high on the list of things that can save you a significant amount of money with a single change. One very effective avenue to pursue when creating an energy efficient home is to use the most energy efficient appliances that you feel comfortable with.
There certainly are ultra-efficient designs for just about every appliance in your home. However, you need to be reasonable about it to keep everyone in your household happy as well as thrifty. Consider that you’ll want to balance out the savings with the potential cost of these devices.
Some of them require yearly maintenance. Even if it just is adding some de-nitrifying bacteria and lime every few months, that’s still more plumbing maintenance than most people are accustomed to. For most people, they’ll be looking to get the same sort of appliances they’ve always had, but will make sure the one they purchase is at least rated according to the US government’s “Energy Star” certification. When you see that now familiar symbol, you are assured that the appliance meets at least basic energy efficiency standards.
One really great way to start out saving money with your appliances, is to collect the water that you use to feed some significant users of this resource. You can use gravity or an energy efficient pump – it could even be powered by renewable devices such as thin-film solar or micro-wind turbines. This will save on your energy and your water bill while conserving both resources.
Efficient appliances make good use of what water they do get. Following the directions on your washing machine correctly, for instance, you can use as little as half the water that a conventional machine might. Any such appliance made before 1995 should be considered a potential water and energy hog. The same is true of the dishwasher.
Most homes in North America have some sort of heat, and this is very often in the form of a furnace. Furnaces have a reputation for being poorly maintained. Even a furnace that was designed to be energy efficient in the past can be causing additional pollution. When energy efficient appliances break down to such a point that efficiency is compromised, they are just as wasteful as old-style appliances until maintained.
Maintaining appliances, like maintaining cars, shaves just a fraction of the fuel usage. When spread across a population, making such subtle changes can have a significant effect in the amount of oil that’s imported into the US as well as the amount of pollution that is emitted as a result.
Most energy efficient homes, such as those certified by green building associations, come replete with the most energy efficient that money can buy. These may or may not be coupled with renewable resources, either directly or through the power company as a broker of renewable power on the grid.
It can be due to either the moral necessity of living the most sustainable life possible or (more likely) the impact of rising petroleum costs. Regardless, people are looking into conserving resources wherever possible. Replacing old inefficient appliances with ones that are at least new to you and maintaining the appliances you do have properly can cut as much as half of your energy bill. Add compact-florescent (CF) bulbs to that mix, and you’ll wonder why you didn’t do this sooner, though cheap oil probably has something to do with it.
Old appliances can be recycled into their component parts, saving a significant fraction of the carbon dioxide as well as saving water and energy usage. A significant number of old appliances make their way into scrap yards each year, ready to be recycled. However, the recycling process makes many tons of highly toxic waste product, that is also of concern to environmentalists. Scrap yards that sell the good parts from broken down equipment are becoming more profitable, as many parts and pieces are no longer made by their respective manufacturers.
People are learning to up-cycle old appliances, too. This involves taking the old husks of refrigerators and turning them into energy efficient appliances with the addition of new materials and seals. This option is attractive to young people starting out with their new-found skills. Up-cycling energy efficient appliances and tinkering with their cycle so they use less water and get the clothes cleaner – these “hot rod” appliances require a far smaller investment of physical resources that don’t have to be removed from a mountainside, saving water as well as petroleum and pollution.
Energy efficient or not, that’s a great deal of carbon dioxide pollution in the form of new appliances. If purchasing new, you need to consider the materials involved. The trend towards stainless steel refrigerators in the mid-aughts led to a worldwide shortage of new stainless steel wine tanks, putting an entire industry on hold through the power of consumer demand.
There is almost always some sort of cost in terms of pollution, but it’s the reduction of resource wasting that will make a difference in the 21st century. Some strides were made in the 1970s, while the process of changing out a billion or so appliances that begun in the mid-1990s is just now nearing a reasonable state of completion – just in time, too.
Now that most people have made some effort to save on an energy bill that may have suddenly gotten out of control. Energy efficient homes are simply the way that homes will be in the 21st century.
