Efficient Appliances

A large part of your journey toward energy independence will be reducing the amount of wasted energy. Unfortunately, many traditional American homes constructed within the last 50 years have been built with the mindset that electricity is nearly free. The result is homes that use a large amount of electricity inefficiently, costing the homeowner money, decreasing the homeowner's comfort, and contributing to the need for more power plants. Investing in conservation is the most cost-effective, and often the easiest way to begin exerting control over your energy destiny. We will help you reduce the energy needs of your present or new home while providing more comfort, safety and convenience, while reducing your energy usage.

In most homes, the largest electrical draw is for heat, both water heating and space heating. The first step is to make sure your home is well-built, sealed, and insulated. We can offer some pointers to resources to accomplish this. The second step is to provide that heat, and store it and use it in the most efficient manner possible. Towards that goal we offer high-efficiency hot water heaters that incorporate the domestic hot water heating with hydronic floor heating. If you have an appropriate solar resource it is practical to use solar thermal collectors to preheat the water.

Large appliances such as the oven, dish washer, laundry washer/dryer, and refrigerator are also large consumers of electricity. Burning a gas such as propane or natural gas is a much more efficient way to create heat than using electrical resistance, so use gas appliances when possible. These are large long-term purchases and so it makes sense to purchase the best tools to fulfill these household needs. Most brands now offer models that are EnergyStar certified as operating efficiently.

Lighting is a substantial draw and by examining your bulbs and possibly changing them to new CF (compact fluorescent) bulbs, this may be one of the easiest ways for you to make a large dent in your energy consumption. These are not your father's fluorescent bulbs! The recent increased demand for CF bulbs has created a large supply of CF bulbs of many different qualities. We offer several bulbs for the different lighting applications in your home.

Almost every home these days contains a plethora of phantom loads. It sounds scary and in a way, it is! Many electronic appliances have substantial electrical draws even when they are turned off. For instance your television is always drawing power to stay warm so that when you turn it on, the picture can appear quickly. There is a clothes washer with fancy electronic controls that draws as much as a 75 watt light bulb when it is not being used. To eliminate this waste, you can unplug the appliance, or use a timer or a switch of some sort. We can help you accomplish this, and we can offer small, inexpensive and effective meters to help you track down phantom loads in your house.

Many smaller appliances use batteries. Standard disposable batteries take a substantial environmental toll as they contain many nasty pollutants, and the necessity of buying new batteries is a waste of money. As a remedy for this unsatisfactory situation, we offer rechargeable batteries from AAA to D size.

Please call for more information on these products.