Is energy-star rating actually going to save me money? how much? looking at specs, it seems a bit fishy?

Question

We're building a house and at the point of picking out appliances I thought I wanted to go with all energy-star appliances save money and energy in the long after going back and forth looking at the specs on two comparable GE refrigerators - one energy-star, the other not energy star, the savings per year appears to be a whopping $3. As the energy star fridge is $200. more than the regular it would take 66 years to absorb that cost. Also, is it just me or is $3 of energy savings really going to be ...any?

The math is based on what the two GE machines say on their spec pages, this seems like a huge waste of my money...where is the savings? what am I missing or is this just a bunch of hype.

Answer 1

First, there are a bunch of variables here (life of the product, usage, etc.). But for something as specific as a refridgerator, there isn't that much variation (because people leave their fridge on all the time).



Second, for some products (notably dishwashers), the energy star standards are pretty low so getting just any energy star dishwasher may not save you much money (or it could save you a lot) because it doesn't take much to qualify for the ratings in the dishwasher category.



Third, given those caveats, energy star absolutely makes sense. Let me give you some details (some of this is from the Oct. 2008 Consumer Reports which you can access online or buy the paper copy: www.consumerreports.org).

--15 year old fridge at 25 cubic feet, operating cost is $126 per year.

--new bottom-freezer (Amana AFD) at 25 cubic feet, operating cost per year is $54.



The gap is even bigger at hot-water heaters: 10 year old electric storage water heater--annual operating cost of $526. New heat-pump storage water heater--annual operating cost of $216.



Additionally, the numbers you're looking at are deceptive. Here's why: the cost of energy is only going to go up. Oh sure, it's a comodity. So prices will rise and fall. But the data I've seen says that energy prices may go up 30% from now to next Spring (despite the drop in gas prices). So savings in electricity will actually be higher. And if you have...say...a dishwasher that isn't well insulated, it heats the house when you run it. Which requires more AC to cool off the house during the summer. Or if you get a side-by-side fridge (less efficient), more cool air escapes and it probably has a modest impact on higher heating bills. Finally, right now, you're just looking at the cost of buying the energy. If we every introduce some sort of carbon tax or need to start coming up with programs to deal seriously with global warming, it doesn't matter what you're paying for energy, there will be restrictions on power usage (at least vial non-renewable sources) so that fridge that cost less ends up costing you in a carbon-tax or because in order to run it, you have to turn off other appliances in house at times.



And if none of that is convincing enough for you, the stuff that has the most potential annual savings (between energystar and non) would be things like: Washers, dryers, water heaters, furnaces, and thermostats. Additionally, you probably won't save much money in power on a dishwasher but the new efficient ones use significantly less water (which especially if you live anyplace that has water quality or water access issues) is about being a responsible citizen.



Here's another thought: if you don't want to spring for energy star appliances, look at what you can do to add solar to your house. A lot of places have tax credits to encourage this and with a new house, you don't have the hassle of a retrofit. And if you're using self-generated, clean, renewable energy than you're not paying anything for electricity. You're protected against outages or major energy costs in the future and you're also dealing with global warming.

Answer 2

Most appliances in the US have minimum requirements for energy efficiency. The ENERGY STAR label is given to those that are at least 10% better in terms of efficiency than the minimum requirement. Since it's fairly hard to hit the minimum bang on, even the worst appliances are likely to be only around 8% lower than the lowest ENERGY STAR rated ones.



The ENERGY STAR label is a good place to start - if the appliance doesn't have that label, don't reward the manufacturer for building an energy wasting appliance. But within the ENERGY STAR range you should still look for the most efficient you can find. For some types of appliances, there can be a range of 20% or more between the lowest rated ENERGY STAR labeled appliance and the best.



In your particular case it may be that the ENERGY STAR rated fridge is at 10.1% of the minimum required efficiency, and the non-ENERGY STAR rated fridge is at 9.9%. So you might see very small savings between the ENERGY STAR one and the other. But for my fridge, which uses about 460 kwh per year (costing me $46) and is not only ENERGY STAR qualified but was about 15% better than some other ENERGY STAR qualified fridges at the time, it is going to be 25% better than the least efficient fridge on the market, so each year it saves me $15 in energy costs.



Don't forget to factor in the likelihood that energy costs will rise faster than other costs. The $3 this year could be $4 next year, $5 the next, and so on. So the savings will multiply instead of adding up.



Look at the ENERGY STAR website for a complete list of appliances with their ratings. You may have to look a little harder to find the most efficient models, but you can do better than save $3 a year.



Also, remember that part of the reason many people buy ENERGY STAR appliances is to reduce their impact on climate change or other environmental problems brought on by our profligate energy use. So in my mind, I'd be willing to pay the higher sticker price even if the payback period was into the 22nd century!

Answer 3

I will give you that sometimes the math is fuzzy. However, on some products cost around the same and in that case that $3 will add up. You still have to do the math and see about each product.

Answer 4

Sorry Amy but no answers looks to me like your assumption is 100% correct. Buy the one that looks and fits the best.