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Appliances


Green up your laundry room

If yours is an average family, you wash 400 loads of laundry each year, using 40 gallons per load with a traditional top-loading washer. But switch to an Energy Star front loader and cut your per-load water use to 25 gallons and cut your energy costs of the same laundry by about a third.

Even more startling, that Energy Star washer can save enough money over its lifetime to pay for a matching dryer. The water savings could fill three backyard swimming pools!

If your washer is more than 10 years old, a new Energy Star top-loader could save $135 each year in your electric bill. So why is a top-loader more efficient? For one, the tub the clothes sit in rotates, and the clothes inside tumble in less water. They also spin clothes faster, resulting in dryer clothes even before you put them in a dryer or better yet hang them out to dry.

Here are some washing and drying best tips:

  • Use a “high-efficiency” detergent with front-loading washers. Regular detergent creates too much suds, which can affect the machine’s performance.
  • Look for plant-based detergents and non-chlorine-bleach products made from sodium percarbonate or sodium perborate.
  • Wash a full load – regardless of size of load -- the washer uses about the same amount of energy.
  • Wash in cold water – water heating consumes about 90 percent of the energy to operate the washer.
  • Avoid the sanitary cycle, which uses super-hot water.
  • Leave the door open after use on front-loading washers to avoid mold buildup.
  • Rinse the washer every month with 1 cup of bleach to help reduce mold or mildew.
  • Dry clothes on a rack or outside.
  • If you must use a dryer:
    • Buy one with a moisture sensor option on the dryer, which automatically turns off the dryer when clothes are dry.
    • Clean the lint filter after every load to improve air circulation and increase efficiency
    • Scrub the lint filter regularly if you use dryer sheets to remove any film.
    • Dry only full loads and dry two or more loads in a row to take advantage of residual heat.
    • Use the cool-down cycle or perma-press cycle to allow clothes to finish drying with residual heat.
    • Dry lightweight items that take less drying time together vs. mixing them with heavy items.

Remember, clothes dryers aren’t Energy Star rated because the amount of energy they use doesn’t vary much from model to model. But over 18 years, according to the Consumer Energy Center, a dryer can cost as much as $1,530 to operate. Maybe you don’t need a dryer after all….

Stove shopping for energy efficiency

When shopping for a new stove, study your options carefully because chances are you’ll live with your choice for the next 20 years. You can bet that a new stove will have more insulation, tighter gaskets and more efficient self-cleaning than your old model. Though Energy Star doesn’t rate stoves and ovens, look for the yellow EnergyGuide label that tells you how much it will cost to operate a particular model.

When shopping, think about the basic cost of cooking. According to the Consumer Energy Center, 58 percent of households cook with electricity even though gas stoves cost about half as much to operate: electricity is just so convenient. And, as Michael Bluejay points out, we’re only talking about an average of $18 a year cheaper for gas. Gas prices also are more volatile than electricity prices.

New convection ovens, which circulate heated air around the food, offer an alternative to straight electric and gas. Whereas an electric oven costs about 16 cents to operate for an hour at 350 degrees, a convection oven costs about 11 cents and gas 7 cents.

Other efficient cooking options are an electric frying pan at 7 cents, toaster oven at 8 cents, electric crockpot at 6 cents and a microwave at 3 cents.

New stoves come with all kinds of extras: warmers, grills, griddles, six or more burners, for starters. Select a model with only the features you need and will use and an oven suited for the size of your family.

Also consider the different types of stove-top cooking elements. Solid disk elements and radiant elements under glass are easier to clean but take longer to heat and use more electricity. Halogen elements and induction elements are more efficient. However, induction elements require you use only iron or steel pots and pans.
 

Use your oven efficiently

Seems like we naturally use our ovens more for baking, broiling and roasting in cool weather. The Consumer Energy Center offers these tips for using our ovens more efficiently:

  • Bake several items at a time.
  • Unless you’re baking breads or pastries, you may not need to preheat.
  • Don’t open the oven door to check food – you lose 25 degrees every time you open the door.
  • Don’t cover oven racks with foil – it blocks the flow of hot air.
  • Turn the temperature down about 25 degrees if you use glass or ceramic pans in the oven.
  • Clean a self-cleaning oven right after you’ve used it to take advantage of residual heat.
  • Self-clean no more than once a month or you’ll use more electricity than you save by cooking with a clean oven.
  • Check the seal on your oven door for tears or gaps that can allow heat to escape.
  • Use a toaster oven or crockpot for baking, particularly smaller amounts of food.
  • Turn the oven off several minutes before the allotted cooking time is up. The oven’s residual heat will finish the job.