[Greenbuilding] Question about appliances

[Reuben Deumling]

Bobbi,
you can get an inexpensive kWh meter with which to measure how much your
110V appliances draw. The Kill-a-Watt is popular and cheap. You can find it
online for a little over $20. That will help  determine whether your fridge
should be replaced. My guess is not. These days new fridges consume anywhere
from about 280 kWh to 550 kWh unless you're into the gargantuan ones. This
will plausibly be less than what yours uses, but maybe not all that less.
Size matters (then and now).

As for the electric dryer, I'd vote for extending the gas line to it and
getting rid of it. Better yet, use a clothes line.

On 7/2/07, Bobbi Chukran <bobbi at bobbichukran.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> We closed on our new downsized house this morning, and are pondering
> whether to buy new appliances or keep our old ones until they quit
> working.  We have a washer, electric dryer and refrigerator that are
> all about 11 years old.
>
> They are still in good working order.  Does it make sense "green
> wise" to replace them now, or wait?  How much in energy $$ could we
> conceivably save if we bought new Energy Star replacements?
>
> And speaking of that, we bought a new freezer not long ago from
> Sears.  They didn't have any Energy Star models that were
> self-defrosting.  The salesperson said that we'd spend energy
> defrosting the things and it would all even out.  I felt bad about
> not buying an ES freezer, but at the time we had no choice.
>
> BTW, our house does have natural gas for the range, but not for the
> dryer.  We were wondering about the economics of adding a gas hook-up
> so we could get a gas (and not electric) dryer.  Would that make
> sense?
>
> Are there any resources online for comparing old vs. new as far as
> appliances go?
>
> We naturally are trying to watch the budget, especially since we also
> have to put an exhaust vent in for the gas range (it horrifies me to
> see how  many of the houses just have a recirculating fan---haven't
> they heard of carbon monoxide???), a dehumidifier and whole house
> filter in the AC unit.
>
> And a house full of new flooring.  Did I mention that the whole house
> is carpeted, and I have chemical sensitivities?  Ugh.
>
> Thanks....
>
> bobbi c.
>
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