Saving Energy Begins at Home Part III--Examining Efficiency

It's been a long time since I wrote on this subject, so I'll catch you up on Part 1 and Part 2.

I'll begin with what exactly drove me into this article, and that is the prospect of possibly finding another suitable house. Instead of looking on the low end of my budget scale in hopes of finding something I could "make" livable and resalable, I tried a new tactic: looking at the top of my budget and deducting for "flaws." I looked at one house today (nope, didn't hold a candle to the bungalow, but I guess I have to move on now) that had been 99% renovated, and needed all the appliances. Since it's been awhile since I had to buy appliances, I had Hubby go search the web to see what's what in Appliance Land.

Oh boy, you would not BELIEVE what we found! For starters, the words I wrote in Part 1 of this saga were more than prophetic--especially the stuff about french door refrigerators not being energy efficient. It turns out they are the absolute WORST of the bunch!

Upon further analysis, I found that the appliance industry is a lot like our current automobile industry--anything American-made is just not up to par with foreign models as far as efficiency goes. Whether it's water, electricity, or unleaded gas, we just don't cut it here at home any more.

Something else I discovered: unless the appliance has something to do with water or cooling/freezing (such as refrigerators), there really is no point in looking for efficiency, because it isn't to be found. Take clothes dryers for example--other than capacity and energy source, there really is no other means for making these things more efficient, other than using a clothes line. What WILL make it more efficient is using a washer that spins fast enough to drain very nearly all the water out of washed laundry so the dryer doesn't have to work so hard to dry it. The appliance itself cannot be made more efficient other than to switch to gas, or use it less.

Another "efficiency" wasteland is stoves or stove/ovens: again, the only difference to be made here is to use gas fuel or limit use of ovens/stoves. The appliance itself cannot be made more efficient, but the ignition source on gas stoves CAN be more efficient, as well as how you use your stove/oven.

The real difference among stovetops is the burner: more "open" burners are less efficient (such as those coil types) because they're more exposed to surrounding air. The more sealed your burner, the more efficient. Also, the more conductive your cookware, the more you help the efficiency of your burners.

Still another "efficiency" wasteland is hot water heaters--they heat water, and they all heat water the same way. The only difference is the size of tank, and the source of fuel the heater uses. Tankless heaters SAY they cut down energy usage, but they only cut the energy used to STORE hot water because there's no tank. Tankless units cost about $500 or so (depending on fuel used, and yes, they come in gas, electric, propane, oil, and geothermal), but cost about another $1500 or so for installation (you can't just slap these babies up anywhere! They need their own dedicated fuel source, dedicated venting, dedicated water line, and dedicated circuit). For all the money they cost to get up and running, they only save $30-60 in annual bills--they also take time for the water to actually turn hot at the faucet, costing you water as well as power money.

It's best to make optimal use of the one you have--by turning down the temp to 120 degrees, insulating it with a foam jacket, and making sure you have the correct size for your usage.

The only REAL appliance efficiencies we should be worried about are refrigerators, deep freezers over 10 cubic feet, and dishwashers--the most efficient ones being made overseas somewhere, and none of the super-efficient lines run the whole gamut among refrigerators, stoves, and dishwashers (so much for matching appliances and resale value). The name on the fronts may match, but are you really getting the expected efficiency that ought to go along with it? Not really--some manufacturers that make red-hot dishwashers don't make refrigerators so well, and vice-versa. It's all hit-and-miss.

I guess the best you could hope for is appliances that are red-hot for efficiency and don't carry an obvious label on the front. As for me, I'm going to be satisfied if they all come in the same color (white).

If you are looking for appliances MORE efficient than the much-touted Energy Star ones, go here to ACEEE--they actually give you performance numbers to look for, instead of government-created performance ratings from well-lobbied companies. Energy Star appliances are only about 20% more efficient than their predecessors--close enough for government work, right? There's better out there if you can (and want to) afford it, and ACEEE ratings can give you as much as 50% more efficiency.

Think of them as the "hybrids" of a home, and think about how you feel about driveway hybrids (only these "hybrids" actually make sense immediately and over the long haul, plus you get to take them with you when you move out--lifetime buys, maybe?). Taking the car-appliance analogy further, today's cars really cannot be made more efficient except by changing the fuel source or limiting use. Sure, tweaks to the engine and/or transmission, shrinking the size, and messing with the configuration (in-line as opposed to side-by-side occupancy, for example) can be done, but for SAFETY'S sake, we've gone as far as we can go with the bodies.

Cars may as well be the "stoves and dryers" of the world.