The Low Down On Green Living
May 21st, 2008
Buying Eco-Friendly Appliances
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Tania Anderson of the Washington Post blog “Shop To It” has written a great piece on Buying Eco-Friendly Appliances. Please give it a read!
Would you buy a house just because it was green? I’m not talking color here but energy efficiency. A Realtor recently told me I should replace all my old appliances for eco-friendly ones, making my home, which I plan to sell in the next few months, more attractive to people interested in a green home. So as I consider this potential investment I talked to Celia Kuperszmid Lehrman, deputy home editor of Consumer Reports. Here are her tips for those of us who may be shelling out money for eco-friendly appliances:
Tip #1: Before replacing old appliances with the latest eco-friendly ones, consider the age of your current machines and when the latest energy efficiency standards were released for certain appliances. “The older it is, the more likely it is a candidate for replacing,” says Lehrman. Energy standards for dishwashers and washing machines were last updated in 2007 and refrigerators were updated more recently. You can also check with Energy Star, a joint program of the Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Department, to find out if your appliances are in line with the most recent energy efficient standards. The site also has a calculator to figure out if it’s time to replace your refrigerator, one of the biggest energy suckers in the house.
** Also see Low Impact Living’s selection of Energy Star and other efficient appliances here.
Tip #2: Another way to figure out if you need to replace appliances is to find out their environmental footprint, which is how much impact they have on the environment based on the amount of energy and water they consume. Consumer Reports’ GreenerChoices.org Web site, as well as Low Impact Living have calculators to figure your home’s environmental footprint.
Tip #3: While you’re chucking old appliances, think about changing old toilets and shower heads. Any toilet made before the early 1990s is using a ton of water to flush. Toilets these days are using a mere 1.6 gallons of water to do the job. (I recently bought a new toilet and had it installed for $200.) Older showerheads can be repleaced with low-flow showerheads, which use 50-70 percent less water.
Tip #4: Replacing old appliances with eco-friendly ones is great, as long as you’re not adding to landfills. Call nonprofit groups like Salvation Army or Habitat for Humanity to find out if they’ll take your old appliances. And some retailers will recycle your old appliances, particularly refrigerators.
Tip #5: You can think of going green as having an impact on your pocketbook and an impact on the environment. So just because the impact on your utility bill is small doesn’t mean the impact on the entire electrical grid isn’t significant. “Even a small change makes a very large change when you’re thinking about millions of units across the country,” Lehrman says.
Tip #6: Find out when stores get new models of appliances and consider buying last year’s model to get a better deal. Just make sure the older model is in line with the latest energy efficiency standards. Remember that Energy Star has a model look-up tool.
Tip #7: Shop around. Lehrman says there’s little variation in prices, so it pays to look for sales. Be willing to haggle, especially if you’re buying more than one appliance, and consider going to independent appliance stores. “Traditionally we found that with the independent stores, the pricing may not be as good, but people are generally more satisfied with the experience,” says Lehrman. Costco has been known to have good prices on appliances, she adds. Just go there knowing what model you want. The selection is limited, making it not a great place to just shop around.
Tip #8: Don’t expect prices on eco-friendly appliances to go down any time soon. The prices of materials used to make appliances, such as stainless steel, have gone up, along with shipping fees. So prices will likely stay put.
Tip #9: If you have to replace one old appliance at a time, consider ditching the refrigerator first. It’s on 24-7 and soaks up the most energy. Then figure out which appliances are the oldest and get rid of the dinosaurs first.
Tip #10: Before plunking down your credit card, check the retailer’s and manufacturer’s Web sites for deals and rebates. Just make sure you don’t mention that you have a coupon or rebate when you’re haggling. The retailer may be less willing to go down in price if they know you already have a discount.
So are you replacing old appliances for ones that are eco-friendly? Where are you finding the best deals? Post a comment below.
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Comments
Debbie
May 28th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
If you take your energy eating appliance and another person buys it and starts using it, you haven’t taken it out of the carbon footprint, have you?
AC2007
May 28th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Don’t forget scratch & dent sales. You can get top of the line, high efficiency appliances for a steal. Sometimes the “flaws” are on the side or back, where no one would ever see them.
Rob Johnson
May 29th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
AC That is how I bought my Refegerator- it had a small dent were no one would see it but the store had to sell it for $100s less- and I bought my energy star dishwasher at a store going out of the appliances business.It was the floor model and price much less!
Bosch Dad
August 14th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I’m a firm believer in replacing old appliances with energy efficient appliances, and calling Goodwill and other non-profit organizations that accepts donations to recycle our old clothes, furniture, and/or appliances.
Pauline
November 2nd, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Debbie, good question. I guess I think of it as being kinda even this way: someone taking my old appliance may not be able to afford a newer, energy efficient one, but they still need the appliance. The old appliance is being reused instead of ending up in a landfill and this other person isn’t having to go out to buy a cheap brand NEW appliance.
Shopping for a Small Foot(print) | Sustainable Life | Work It, Mom!
January 22nd, 2009 at 12:59 pm
[...] also came across this post of Low Impact Living about appliances, and learned a lot. I didn’t know this, but could have guessed that the [...]
kitchen sinks
March 24th, 2009 at 12:09 am
Nice tips to buy eco-friendly green appliances.
Corey
November 12th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Spin dryers such as at http://www.laundry-alternative.com are far and away the most energy efficient laundry appliances on the market. They are about 100 times as energy efficient as a conventional tumble dryer.
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