Has anyone filled this out yet its like a on line energy audit. It might take an 1 hour or more to do, I'm still in the process of mine.
http://hes.lbl.gov/
http://hes.lbl.gov/
Gooserider said:If this is the site I'm thinking it is, I did it a while back and had mixed feelings about the results. Far as it went, it wasn't bad, but it didn't really come up with anything I didn't already know... Also like a lot of sites it was tending to look at saving money by spending a lot of it.... For instance it was suggesting replacing our fridge and washing machine - yes, the existing appliances are old, and not all that efficient, but they are 100% paid for, and work reliably - the washer is 15+ years old, and still going strong - According to the appliance repair sites I've seen the new energy saver machines are lucky to go 10 years w/o needing cost of replacement level repairs... Why spend the money to replace a WORKING appliance that by most accounts probably has a lot more years of useful service in it w/ only minor repairs? - Sure I'd save on utilities, but it would take an awfully long time to pay back the cost of a replacement machine - and nobody mentions the energy / environmental costs of disposing of the old one...
The fridge was the same deal...
My feeling is that from all the numbers I've seen, it makes sense to get energy star stuff if one is replacing something because you have to, but you are unlikely to come out ahead by replacing a WORKING appliance just to get an energy savings.
Gooserider
Gooserider said:If this is the site I'm thinking it is, I did it a while back and had mixed feelings about the results. Far as it went, it wasn't bad, but it didn't really come up with anything I didn't already know... Also like a lot of sites it was tending to look at saving money by spending a lot of it.... For instance it was suggesting replacing our fridge and washing machine - yes, the existing appliances are old, and not all that efficient, but they are 100% paid for, and work reliably - the washer is 15+ years old, and still going strong - According to the appliance repair sites I've seen the new energy saver machines are lucky to go 10 years w/o needing cost of replacement level repairs... Why spend the money to replace a WORKING appliance that by most accounts probably has a lot more years of useful service in it w/ only minor repairs? - Sure I'd save on utilities, but it would take an awfully long time to pay back the cost of a replacement machine - and nobody mentions the energy / environmental costs of disposing of the old one...
The fridge was the same deal...
My feeling is that from all the numbers I've seen, it makes sense to get energy star stuff if one is replacing something because you have to, but you are unlikely to come out ahead by replacing a WORKING appliance just to get an energy savings.
Gooserider