Saving money on your energy bill each month can be a rigorous, penny-pinching task, but one thing homeowners often overlook is their appliances. Advancements in technology have allowed newer ENERGY STAR certified appliances to achieve higher performance and lower monthly energy costs than older models that most families use in their homes today. Those lower costs can really add up as, on average, home appliances makeup 20% of your home’s monthly electric bill!
Today’s ENERGY STAR-certified appliances – clothes washers, dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, and more – last on average 10-20 years, using anywhere from 10-50% less energy than the same, non-ENERGY STAR appliances. Certain appliances are more energy hungry than others, however, so here are a few metrics to keep in mind when shopping for new high efficiency home appliances:
The average American family washes about 300 loads of laundry each year. Keeping that in mind, an ENERGY STAR-certified washing machine can not only cut your energy costs by about a third, it can cut your water bill by more than half!
Dishwashers that are ENERGY STAR certified are 10% more energy efficient and 20% more water efficient on average than an older, non-high efficiency appliance. This equates to loads costing $35 less annually and a water savings of 1,900 gallons over the appliance’s lifetime.
ENERGY STAR-certified refrigerators and freezers are about 15% and 10% more efficient than their lower efficiency counterparts, respectively. The high-performance power of an ENERGY STAR-certified refrigerator is so advanced now that a new appliance uses less energy than a 60-watt lightbulb!
Homeowners can also take advantage of smart ENERGY STAR appliances, like dishwashers and clothes washers, that adjust each load to whatever you need. Smart dishwashers minimize water usage by using sensors to determine the length of wash cycle and water temperature based on the dishes in each load. This helps you save money and reduces the demand placed on your home’s water heater. Smart clothes washers can also adjust washing functions, operating more gently, rinsing more thoroughly, or removing water throughout the stages of the wash, all based on the types of clothes that you put in the load. These advancements save you money on operating costs each month, but also protect the investments you make in your clothes!
And not only do ENERGY STAR appliances save you more on your monthly energy bills, they also help create a cleaner, safer environment. If every appliance purchased in the country this year was ENERGY STAR certified, the country would prevent greenhouse gas emissions equal to that of 215,000 cars, as well as save $350 million in annual energy costs.
To learn more about ENERGY STAR appliances, visit energystar.gov. Interested in building a new, high efficiency home full of energy-saving appliances? Use our find a builder tool to get in touch with a homebuilder in your area.
The 1-100 ENERGY STAR score is an easy and reliable way to better understand your home or building’s energy consumption and see how it compares to others across the country. For High Efficiency Homes, we pride ourselves on working with homebuilders to create top performing homes, reaching scores of 75 of more.
But how is your home compared to other homes? The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration conducts a national survey every four years to get a better idea of energy usage in different types of buildings across the country. This survey looks at the characteristics and energy information of homes across the country, and it compares yours to ones that match in areas like size, layout, and environmental factors that would affect energy usage like weather.
The ENERGY STAR system then works to estimate how much energy each home would use at its best performance, worst performance, and different levels throughout. The ENERGY STAR algorithm then uses that data combined with the data collected from actual energy usage to determine where your home ranks in comparison to others of the same size and style.
To learn more about ENERGY STAR certified homes, visit energystar.gov. Contact the team at High Efficiency Homes today or find a builder to get started on building your high efficiency, ENERGY STAR-certified new home.
