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Buying a New Appliance
If you're thinking about buying a new appliance, consider these two environmental aspects of your purchase:
- How much energy is consumed over the life of the appliance
- How much energy was used to manufacture, package and market the appliance (called the embodied energy of a product).
Knowing about energy consumption is especially important when buying large appliances. It is also know as the "second cost" because over the life of a large appliance, the cost of the energy to run it can be 2-3 times more than the purchase price. Compare electric use of appliances. When shopping for large appliances, there are 2 ways to find out and compare energy consumption:
- Study the bright yellow Energy Guide label. This label appears on ALL major appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers, clothes washers and water heaters, regardless of their energy efficiency.
- Look for the Energy Star label. This label appears only on major appliances that are more efficient than the current Federal Energy Efficiency Standard. The Energy Star web site has a very helpful guide to compare energy consumption of appliances.
Energy consumption is not as critical when choosing small appliances because they do not need as much energy to operate. They either demand very little power (radio) or we use them only for short periods of time (hair dryer). So, consider embodied energy when choosing small appliances. Ask yourself:
- Do I really need it?
- Can I borrow it or buy it used?
- Is it packaged using recycled materials?
- If it breaks, will I be able to fix it, or will it need to be thrown out?
Unfortunately, we don't have a list of embodied energy costs for each appliance. But we can help you calculate energy consumption for a specific appliance, or offer a list of energy uses for typical home appliances.
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