Living Like Ed (3 page)

There is no amount of thermostat programming that can replace good ol’ shutting down the heating and cooling completely when the temperatures outside and inside your home are within your own personal comfort zone. Well, that ain’t gonna fly anymore in my home. I have a wife and a daughter who require considerably more creature comfort than I did when living on my own.

If you have a really old heating and air-conditioning unit, you might want to consider purchasing a new Energy Star system. It’s going to be a big investment, but you’re going to make that money back in a few years because the units are so much more efficient now, and use so much less power. The compressors are more efficient, the fans are more efficient, everything about the system’s more efficient. You can literally save up to 20 percent on your yearly heating and cooling costs with a new, more energy-efficient unit.

What Energy Star Means

Many people think Energy Star is a brand name or a particular company. Actually, it’s a program created jointly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy. Its goal is laudable: to help everybody save money and protect the environment through energy-efficient products and practices. And the program is working.

To benefit from this program, you just look for the Energy Star symbol a product. It’s like a seal of approval. To wear it, that product has to meet strict energy efficiency guidelines.

You can find the Energy Star symbol on all kinds of things, from complete homes to appliances and office equipment, including

•
central air-conditioning units and room air conditioners

•
ceiling fans (another great way to reduce cooling costs and energy use)

•
furnaces

•
dehumidifiers

•
refrigerators and freezers

•
clothes washers

•
dishwashers

•
windows and skylights

•
doors

•
roofing products

•
insulation

•
televisions, VCRs, and DVD players

•
computers and monitors

•
fax machines, printers, and scanners

•
cordless phones

•
lighting fixtures

Purchasing Energy Star-qualified products can even get you a tax break. To find out which products qualify and which forms you’ll need to submit to the Internal Revenue Service, visit the Energy Star website at
www.energystar.gov
.

Energy-Efficient Refrigerators

How much of a difference does it make to switch to an Energy Star-qualified product? It depends on the product. It can range from a little to a very significant difference. Say you’re thinking about replacing an old refrigerator with a newer model.

Replacing your refrigerator bought in 1990 with a newer, more energy-efficient model would save enough energy to light the average household for nearly four months.

In a typical household, that fridge is the single biggest energy-consuming appliance in the kitchen. In fact, the refrigerator actually uses 25 percent of the energy consumed in most homes.

But even if you can’t replace your current refrigerator, you can still help the one you’ve got use less energy. First, position your fridge so it’s not near a heat source, which makes the fridge work harder to stay cool. You don’t want it right next to the oven or right next to the dish-washer or even in the path of direct sunlight from a window.

Also, make sure air can circulate around the condenser coils. If your refrigerator has coils on the back, that means leaving a space between the back of your refrigerator and the kitchen wall or cabinets.

Once or twice a year, you’ll want to unplug your refrigerator and clean the coils, which are either on the back or in front, behind a kick plate. You can use a vacuum attachment or even warm, soapy water if they’re greasy and grimy. Cleaning those coils enables the refrigerator to operate more efficiently.

And here’s another piece of low-hanging fruit: Make sure the door seals are airtight. If you can feel cold air seeping out of your refrigerator, you’re wasting a lot of energy. The good news is it’s easy to install new seals, and they’re readily available online or from a hardware store.

You can also adjust the thermostat inside your fridge and inside your freezer. Keep your refrigerator between 35 and 38 degrees Fahrenheit, and keep your freezer at 0 degrees Fahrenheit.

And while this may sound obvious, another easy way to save energy is to shut the refrigerator door. Some people get into the habit of leaving that door open when they’re unloading groceries or trying to figure out what to cook for dinner or looking for the perfect mid-night snack. This makes your refrigerator work a lot harder to keep your food cold. It’s also important to avoid overcrowding your refrigerator, as restricting the airflow makes it less efficient. The freezer, on the other hand, keeps food frozen most efficiently when full.

If you do decide to upgrade your fridge, be sure to take the old one to a recycling center or call for a pickup, if that service is provided in your area. (We’ll go into recycling in more detail in Chapter 3, “Recycling.”)

Energy-Efficient Dishwashers

                  Ed used to be adamant about doing the dishes by hand. I’d just as soon use the dishwasher. I said, “Let’s just get a very efficient dishwasher.” You know what Ed said? “You have one. His name is Ed.”

Well, guess what. It turns out using an Energy Star dishwasher is actually
more
energy efficient—and more water-wise—than washing dishes by hand. So there!

I gave Rachelle a hard time about using the dishwasher for years. The truth is, I find solace and joy and happiness in doing dishes, and I was always careful about filling up the sink with soapy water, rather than letting the water run while I was cleaning plates and pots and pans.

Still, as careful as I was, there are now Energy Star-qualified dishwashers that are even more efficient than I am.

Beyond that, a dishwasher uses hotter water than you can stand when you’re hand washing. Energy Star dishwashers get that water up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which does a much better job of disinfecting your dishes, so it’s more sanitary.

A dishwasher saves time, too—more than 230 hours a year.

Of course, you need to develop good dishwashing habits to maximize the eco-savings. First, make sure the dishwasher is full before you run it. Using the dishwasher only saves water and energy over hand washing if you’ve got the dish-washer at least three-quarters full.