Appliances

As Americans, we use a staggering amount of energy per capita. Although we make up only 5 percent of the population, we use 26 percent of the total energy consumed worldwide. A full 90 percent of that energy that we use in our homes goes to powering our appliances—dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, refrigerators, freezers, ovens, microwaves, and air conditioners, to name a few.

Air conditioners are the biggest energy hogs, claiming on average about 16 percent of residential electricity consumption. This is followed closely by heating appliances at 10 percent, refrigerators at 14 percent, and water heaters at 9 percent. Changes, both simple and complex, in how we use our appliances can have a significant impact on our energy consumption.

• Choose an ENERGY STAR washing machine the next time you need to replace your old one to save $145+ every year on utility bills. If your washer is 10+ years old, it’s time to replace.
• Look for the ENERGY STAR label on a new dehumidifier to save $20/year or $250 over the life of the unit.
• ENERGY STAR dishwashers cut energy costs by $30 over other models yearly.
• A front loading washing machine uses less energy for spinning than top-loaders and could save you up to $100 annually in electricity costs. Front-loaders also use less water and less detergent, saving you even more.
• Hang your laundry to dry instead of running the clothes dryer to save $135 in energy yearly.
• Choose a dryer with a temperature sensing control (rather than just a time-drying mechanism) to save 10 percent on drying costs. A moisture-sensing dryer will save 15 percent.
• Empty the lint screen on your dryer to save 30 percent or more on drying energy.
• Choose a gas dryer for your laundry; gas dryers cost between 15 and 20 cents per load, whereas an electric dryer costs between 30 and 40 cents per load.
• Choose the “air-dry” rather than the “heat-dry” setting on your dishwasher to save 15 to 50 percent off the energy used for a load of dishes. Save even more by just propping your dishwasher open to avoid drying altogether.
• Use your microwave to re-heat or cook food to save on cooking energy costs by 50 to 65 percent.
• Do small baking jobs in your toaster oven rather than an electric oven to cut your energy from 2.0 kWh to 0.9 kWh and save 50 percent in energy costs.
• A crockpot uses less than half the energy than an electric oven, and just over half of the energy of an electric convention oven.
• Install four faucet aerators and two low-flow showerheads to save $255 every year.
• Get a power monitor like the Wattson or the Kill-a-Watt to find out exactly how much energy your appliances and electronics are using and to estimate potential savings if they were shut off or upgraded to more efficient models.
• In many cases, only 5 percent of the energy used by your cell phone charger goes to charging your phone; the rest is wasted to heat. Plug your cell phone charger into a power strip and ensure it gets switched off when not in use to cut your cell phone energy consumption.
• A Smart Strip is a power strip that monitors power consumption and can sense when computers and other devices are on or off. When your devices are off, it shuts off the power to eliminate phantom power draws and will pay for itself in energy savings in as little as six weeks.
• Replacing a 20-year old refrigerator with an ENERGY STAR model could reduce that appliance’s energy costs by 60 percent.
• A refrigerator or freezer that was manufactured before 1993 could be costing you $140 every year in electricity. Fridges and freezers produced between 1993 and 2001 could be adding $60 to your early electric bill.
• The Rocky Mountain Institute estimates that on average, our appliances use 6,955 kWh of energy every year, which costs an average of $538 in energy. Many of these appliances use energy even when not operating.
• Use the energy-saving features on your appliances to save nearly $45 every year on electricity bills.
• Unplug your extra fridge to reap electricity savings valued at around $25 every year.
• Replace your old pool pump with a more efficient, and properly -sized model to reduce energy consumption by about $100.
• Run your pump for less than 3 hours per day (which will still maintain healthy water quality) to cut this energy consumption by up to 60 percent.

If you use a portable spa that’s used once a week, decrease the temperature three degrees when not in use to save 5-10 percent in heating costs.

Heating & Cooling

Of the $1,900 the average household pays yearly for energy bills, heating and cooling can account for half of that total bill. Much of this energy is wasted because of old, inefficient equipment, poor maintenance practices, and gaps in a home’s exterior envelop (insulation, windows, doors, and so on) which allows heat transfer to occur. Additional energy is wasted by heating and cooling our homes when they’re not even occupied.

As such a huge contributor to our carbon footprints and our monthly costs, addressing heating and cooling is very important. There are numerous actions you can take to improve your heating and cooling systems so that they function more efficiently and save you money, which will also make your home more comfortable and healthier to live in.

• A furnace upgrade from 0.50 to 0.96 AFUE will save you more than $215 every year on heating costs.
• Adjusting the shades on your windows can help to reduce heat transfer. Keep the shades raised during daylight hours in winter months to allow the sun’s heat into your home, and lower the shades during the day in summer months to keep solar heat out. This could cut your heating and cooling bills between $10 and $100 annually depending on your local climate, efficiency of your windows and shades, and direction your home faces.
• Save upwards of $33 every year on heating/cooling costs by weatherizing your doors and windows.
• Seal air leaks around your windows and doors, recessed lighting fixtures, ducts, plumbing and utility access points, water and furnace flues, electrical outlets and switches, and chimney flashing with caulking, weather stripping, and other weatherizing products. Energy savings will vary, but can be estimated with the Home Energy Saver Calculator.
• Upgrade your air conditioning unit from a SEER rating of 9.0 to 12.0 and cut cooling costs by $27 annually.
• Install an ENERGY STAR programmable thermostat to save $180 in heating and cooling costs every month. These devices regulate your home’s temperature for you on a pre-set schedule.
• Replace old heating and cooling equipment with ENERGY STAR models to reduce your heating/cooling costs by $200 annually.
• Increase the insulation in your basement to achieve savings upwards of $60 every year.
• Install a geothermal heat pump to heat and cool your home and save $600 in heating/cooling costs over the 20-year life of the system.
• Purchase an ENERGY STAR ceiling fan to reduce your energy costs by 50 percent and save more than $15/year on each cooling unit.
• Save up to 50 percent on energy bills by upgrading your old air conditioner with a new, more efficient model.
• If your heating ducts travel through uninsulated or unheated spaces like an attic or crawlspace, you could be losing energy. Improve your home’s efficiency by as much as 60 percent by insulating these ducts.
• Install low-e window films to existing windows to save approximately $21 every year.
• Incorporate passive solar designs—large insulated windows on south-facing walls, thermal mass materials for absorbing heat, etc—and you could lower your heating costs by more than 50 percent.
• Increase your air conditioner’s thermostat by 3F to save approximately $19 annually.
• Install additional insulation in your attic and save more than $100 on heating and cooling costs each year.

According to The Carbon Buster’s Home Energy Handbook, a $150 tune-up can save the average homeowner 12 percent in heating costs, and save on average $385 every year.

Hot Water

Heating our residential water supply requires a big chunk of our annual budgets. On average, Americans allocate between 15 and 25 percent of their energy bills to water heating, making it third to space heating/cooling and kitchen appliances. Finding ways to cut down on the energy you consume to heat your water will put money back into your pocket and reduce your climate impact, too.

• Use cold water for washing laundry to save up to $63 every year in energy costs.
• Install a solar pool water heater for between $2,000 and $4,000. You could receive a return on this investment (compared to a traditional fossil fuel heater) in as little as 1.5 years.
• Install a high-quality pool cover to reduce your pool heating costs by up to 90 percent, which will also cut your water loss to evaporation by 70 percent.
• Insulate your water heater to cut energy costs by $15 annually.
• Hot water used for showering adds to your monthly water heating bill, so using less water to shower will reduce that utility expense. A low-flow showerhead can cost between $8 and $50 and will save you around $200/year depending on your water and energy costs.
• Add an insulation wrap to your hot water tank for about $20. This investment will pay for itself in a couple of months, and will then continue to save you money for years to come.
• Install a tankless (also called on-demand) water heating to save between $160 and $200 annually.
• Taking a shorter shower will reduce the amount of hot water you consumer on a monthly basis. And since it takes energy to heat and store your hot water, a shower timer can reduce your family’s utility costs by $25 for every minute less each person takes to get clean.
• Water costs energy, and hand washing requires more water—using your dishwasher could cut your water use by 37 percent.
• When buying a new dishwasher, choose one that comes with a booster heater for warming the incoming water from 120F to 140F. This allows you to reduce your water heater’s temperature to 120F without compromising on your dishwasher’s cleaning ability, and could save 10 percent in dishwashing energy costs.
• Don’t use the “rinse hold” feature on your dishwasher as this uses 3 to 7 more gallons of hot water each cycle it runs.

Close to 90 percent of the energy used for washing laundry is for heating the water, so wash your laundry in cold water to reduce energy consumption for that load by 50 percent.

Lighting

Improving your residence is likely a never-ending project if you own your own home. From lighting to landscaping to the exterior of your home, there are many opportunities for improving your building’s energy efficiency. Some require a big investment of time and money, while others are quick and easy.

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So, whether you’re taking on a weekend landscaping project, installing new lighting, or upgrading bathroom fixtures, you have many eco-preferable choices that will cut your energy consumption and leave more money in your pocket for future projects! Next time you’re out looking for items to upgrade your home with, refer to this list of tips to get some quick ideas for combining beauty with functionality and efficiency.

• Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), which use 65 to 80 percent less energy and last 8-10 times longer. CFLs are a bit more expensive up front, but by replacing the five most-used bulbs in your home with CFLs, you will save $60 yearly.
• Choose light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to cut lighting energy use in both outdoor and indoor fixtures by 75+ percent. These bulbs last 22+ years and because they use solid-state technology, they’re virtually indestructible.
• Obtain the ENERGY STAR Advanced Lighting Package (ALP) designation for lighting throughout your home and save $65/year or 75 percent in energy costs.
• Use ENERGY STAR qualified strings of light-emitting diode (LED) decorative lights for your holiday decorating. These strings cost more up-front, but will use 75 percent less energy than conventional strands and last 10 times longer (they’re unbreakable!).
• Install light timers or motion sensors in rooms like your bathrooms, closets, the garage, or even hallways to save on lighting energy costs by between 35 and 45 percent for those fixtures.
• Replace old windows with ENERGY STAR qualified, high-efficiency, double- or triple-pane windows to cut heating and cooling costs by $125 to $340 yearly.
• Replace household equipment with ENERGY STAR models to save $450 every year in energy costs.
• Add storm windows to your home to reduce heat loss during the winter by 25-50 percent.
• Buy a green-certified home to reduce your overall energy consumption from an average of 16,000 GJ to 6,400 GJ.
• Whiten your roof to reduce cooling costs and save approximately $26 yearly.
• Plant three trees in optimum shading locations around your home to save between $100 and $250 every year in heating and cooling costs.
• Install an ENERGY STAR skylight which will be 40 percent more efficient than a conventional model.
• Use daylighting features in your home to decrease lighting energy requirements between 30 and 80 percent.
• Choose a skylight with a low-e coating to improve its efficiency by up to 30 percent.
• If a home oriented to the southwest that receives a lot of afternoon sun were oriented 20 degrees to the east, cooling requirements could drop by as much as 30 percent.
• Phantom power loads from VCRs, RVs, small appliances, and other electronics can add $47 to your energy bill every year.

Installing efficient showerheads throughout your home can cut water heating costs by as much as $21 every year.

Whole Home

Whether you know it or not, you consume energy with nearly everything you do in an average day. From the shower you take in the morning to the food you eat for breakfast to the mail the comes to your box every day to the consumer goods you purchase. It all has an impact on your carbon footprint, and to your wallet.

You can make a big difference for the planet by becoming more aware of how little habits and actions contribute to your overall energy consumption and then choosing to adjust your daily life accordingly. In the end, you’ll be preventing carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, and as is true with most green actions, you’ll be saving money, too.

• Take books out from your local library rather than buying new books. You’ll pay $20 every year in taxes to support your library and could easily see a return on that investment by borrowing one or two books instead of buying brand new.
• Instead of buying take-out food for lunch, bag your own lunch in reusable containers and save between $5 and $6 daily.
• The average American receives 41 pounds of unsolicited mail every year—on paper that requires the removal of trees and the use of energy to produce. Disposing of this unwanted mail costs our country $320 million every year. Cut your aggravation and paper-related energy use by contacting the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) to have your name added to the “do not mail” list.
• Buying and trashing thousands of diapers per child adds a significant energy burden to the environment. The average baby will go through $2,000-$3,000 worth of disposable diapers, whereas a three-year supply of cloth diapers will cost anywhere between $300 and $800.
• It takes 60-70 percent less energy to make recycled paper compared to paper made from virgin pulp, so purchase the highest possible post-consumer waste content paper possible.
• Installing a green roof can help you save energy and money in three ways: green roofs protect existing roof materials, protecting them from damage for many years longer than normal. They also cut down on heating and cooling costs in your home and can be a space where you grow your own fruits and vegetables.
• Make your own green cleaning products to cut down on cleaning costs. Eco-friendly cleaning products made at home will be non-toxic and easy to make.
• Compost your organic waste to save money every year in your garden. By making your own compost, you’ll save the cost of buying new soil amendments every spring, plus you’ll cut down on the energy it takes to haul away your waste.