Surely you have heard about appliances that are energy efficient and you must know that they can save you money on your energy bills, right? What do you really know about them, though?
If you are like most people, that would probably be very little.
The reality of it is, these appliances do a lot more than just make your energy bills lower.
They have quite a few other benefits. Let’s take a quick peek at some of them.
1. Energy Savings
This is where you will see the most benefit from an energy efficient appliance.
If you happen to live in a deregulated state, like Texas, you have the power to choose electric rates and this will already help in getting the lowest possible energy bills.
Back to the appliances, though. Your refrigerator is an appliance that uses quite a bit of energy. If you have one that was made before 1993, it is well past time to get a new one. If you replace it with one that is Energy Star certified, you might get a savings of as much as $1100 over the lifetime of the refrigerator.
Energy Star appliances save you about 15% on energy, and if you switch to all Energy Star appliances, you can see a substantial change in your monthly bills for energy.
2. Environmentally Friendly
Another great benefit of appliances like ceiling fans, or other Energy Star appliances, is that they can be more friendly to the environment.
Ceiling fans, in particular, can help you to be more environmentally friendly because when you use these, you can cut back on the use of your central air and heating system. They also use less power, which translates to less pollution.
Now, back to the refrigerator, if everyone who plans to buy a new fridge in 2017 buys Energy Star models, it could be as if we were taking 100,000 cars off the road. They make that much of a difference.
3. Energy Star Price
It doesn’t matter if you are remodeling, moving, or just replacing a few appliances out of necessity, there are some things that you need to remember when you are shopping if you want to make sure that you save money.
You will notice when you are looking at appliances that the Energy Star ones will have a yellow label. This is in addition to the normal price tag. This yellow tag can actually assist you when it comes to estimating the cost of actually operating the appliance. This is what you can expect to pay over an entire year for operating the appliance.
Buying Energy Star appliances can help you to cut this yearly cost to save you money. In fact, aside from saving energy, when you get Energy Star dishwashers, you will also be saving water since they use about 4.2 gallons less per cycle than older models.
4. Rebates and Tax Credits
Let’s say that your hot water heater goes out. You might think that getting one of the new tankless ones might be too expensive. The thing is, you might be able to use a new one as a tax write off or get a rebate from the energy company.
When all is said and done, there really isn’t a good reason not to buy appliances that are energy efficient. Aside from the savings you can get, you will be protecting the planet.
How They Are Operated Matters
This can also impact your energy bill. If you want to reduce the amount of energy your dishwasher uses, try making sure that you only run it when it is full.
Also, be sure to scrape, not rinse, the food off of the dishes before you load the dishwasher.
Additionally, consider letting the dishes air dry. When it comes to laundry, use cold water whenever it is possible and dry your towels and other heavy items in separate loads from quicker drying materials. Now, back to the refrigerator.
Make sure that the seals around the doors are as tight as possible. To do this, close the door with a dollar bill half in and half out of the door. Try to pull it out with the door closed. If you can do this easily, it might be time to replace the seal.