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They suggesst I replace my electric clothes dryer with a nat gas one. No gas on my street and the electric is pretty new and energy star rated. Other than that, clean my AC ducts and go with CFL lighting ( I have a few already). All this could save me $267. The information is kinda general, but it does get you thinking.
Still interesting. I hope my free scrounged firewood and fancy new Cat stove will help this winter.
"insulate furnace ducts." was thinking about it.
everything else didn't save much.
wanted me to replace my 4-year-old high efficiency NG furnace for some reason.
no recommendations for sealing myself up in a dark, foam-filled room.
I have brand new appliances it recommended that I replace them. this audit took a while (1-2 hours) and it didn't give anything really that I didn't know. thanks a lot govt for wasting my time
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.
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.
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.
When we moved into our house we had no appliances so we bought energy star fridge, washer a new electric dryer a electric stove a chest freezer And this was in 2006. That site still said replace with more efficient ones
And I also agree with you that no one talks about the recycling aspect of upgrading appliances.