GE product managers offer some tips for taming home energy consumption
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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – LOUISVILLE, KY — The conveniences of modern life come with a price. Keeping frozen food frozen, our living environments cool, and our morning showers hot, all require energy. And lots of it. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the residential sector used more than 1.138 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2001.
How do we consume energy at home? The DOE estimates that our energy consumption is spent on the following:
Space heating: 31 percent
Space cooling: 12 percent
Water heating: 12 percent
Lighting: 11 percent
Consumer electronics: 9 percent
Appliances: 9 percent
Refrigeration: 8 percent
Other: 8 percent [1]
To help the typical homeowner reduce the amount of energy used, we asked product managers at GE – Appliances & Lighting for some simple ways homeowners can reduce their carbon footprint.
1. Look for the ENERGY STAR® label
Whether you need to replace a burned-out light bulb or a worn-out fridge, buy products that feature the ENERGY STAR® label. ENERGY STAR is a program of the Environmental Protection Agency designed to give consumers information when shopping for energy-efficient products. To earn the ENERGY STAR label, the product must contribute significant energy savings that can be verified through testing.
In 2009, GE listed 293 ENERGY STAR-qualified Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) products, an 8 percent increase from 2008. All total, 92 percent of GE CFLs are ENERGY STAR qualified, while 98 percent of total GE CFL sales were ENERGY STAR qualified. As for appliances, GE had 486 ENERGY STAR-qualified base models, an increase of 8.4 percent over 2008. ENERGY STAR-qualified products make up 38 percent of GE’s 12 ENERGY STAR-qualified product lines and comprise more than 60 percent of GE appliance total dollar sales, an increase of 6.4 percent over the previous year.
2. Make the switch to lower-energy-consuming light sources
There are new light bulbs on the market or coming soon to market that offer substantial energy reduction savings over the classic filament bulb. At GE Lighting, an innovative new bulb is lighting the way for homeowners looking to reduce their energy bills. The new 40-watt replacement GE Energy Smart® LED bulb, available later this year or 2011, is expected to consume just 9 watts, provide a 77 percent energy savings, and produce nearly the same light output as a 40-watt incandescent bulb … while lasting 25 times as long.
“This is a bulb that can virtually light your kid’s bedroom desk lamp from birth through high school graduation,” says John Strainic, global product general manager, GE Lighting. “It’s an incredible advancement that’s emblematic of the imagination and innovation that GE’s applying to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges.”
3. Cutting waste in the ice box
According to 2004 University of Arizona study, households waste on average 14 percent of their food purchases. Fifteen percent of that total includes products still within their expiration date. The study estimates an average family of four tosses out $590 per year in meat, fruits, vegetables and grain products. [2] No matter how you slice it, that’s money down the drain.
Minimizing food waste was a driving force behind the development of the new GE Profile™ side-by-side refrigerators with the ClimateKeeper2™ dual evaporator system, says Jeff Cooksey, manager with GE Appliances Refrigerator products. “The ClimateKeeper2 system creates the ideal condition to maintain maximum freshness of fruits, vegetables, and other fresh foods longer, so food isn’t wasted,” Cooksey says. As an example, he says spinach salad is still crisp and tender after several days, and lemon slices stay bright and moist even five days later.
The ClimateKeeper2 system creates two separate climates to maintain food flavor and quality, a humid fresh-food compartment to retain the moisture in fresh produce, and a more arid freezer side to reduce the freezer’s defrost cycles. On certain models, a single-evaporator ClimateKeeper system maintains even, accurate temperatures to protect a variety of foods.
4. Clean up energy waste when doing dishes
Paul Riley, a manager with GE – Appliances dishwasher products, points to SmartDispense as an example. The GE Profile™ Dishwasher with SmartDispense technology uses a combination of water condition and soil level to determine the correct amount of detergent to optimize wash performance. Cycles have been optimized for the best wash/dry performance with low energy usage. A reduced pump prime requires less water, while the smart fill/cavitation sensing selects the appropriate water fill amount.
Think you save water and energy by doing dishes by hand? Think again. According to research, a load of dishes cleaned in a dishwasher requires 37 percent less water than washing dishes by running water and hand. By saving water, you’re also saving the energy used to pump it, treat it, heat it in your home, and clean it up afterwards in your city’s waste water facility. Up to 50 percent of a typical city’s energy bill goes to supplying water and cleaning it after use.[3]
5. Cooking with less
Robert Posthauer, a manager with GE Cooking Products, recommends induction cooking as a way to reduce energy consumption in the kitchen. Induction technology saves precious minutes by bringing water to the boiling point faster than gas or electric cooktops. Posthauer points to the new GE Profile™ Free-Standing Range with Induction Cooking as an example of how induction technology works.
“With induction cooking, the surface surrounding the burners does not get hot. Instead, a current is produced when an induction-compatible pan with a steel or magnetic bottom is placed on the cooktop,” Posthauer explains. The current heats the pan and cooks the food inside. Less energy is wasted with induction cooking compared to gas or electric, because the technology transfers heat directly to the cookware and the food, rather than heating up the surface area of the cooktop.
6. Cleaning clothes with less water
Reducing waste at home doesn’t have to be limited to energy consumption. There are also ways for homeowners to reduce the amount of water they use.
Jim Skaggs, a manger with GE Clothes Care, says reducing the amount of water required to get clothes clean has been one of the key breakthroughs in washing machine technology. “Many of our washing machines have the PreciseFill auto-load sensing technology. With PreciseFill, the washer automatically adds the right amount of water for each load by sensing the load size during fill. This helps prevent using more water and energy than necessary. As a matter of fact, our testing shows that using PreciseFill can save nearly 60 percent in energy consumption and 51 percent in water usage versus standard top load models.”
The new GE Profile™ SmartDispense™ Frontload Laundry Pair with steam technology uses as little as 10 gallons of water for a small load. The ENERGY STAR-qualified washer can save more than 5,800 gallons of water per year compared to a typical topload washer. Advanced water extraction and the dryer’s moisture sensors help reduce drying time for added energy savings.
7. Swap out that old electric water heater
The electric water tank heater is one of the great conveniences of our time. It’s also one of the home’s most wasteful energy users. That’s because the tank draws energy to heat water whether you’re home or not.
After air heating and cooling, home water heating is the largest in residential energy consumption. Tomoko Villarin, a manager with water heater products for GE – Appliances & Lighting, says one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways homeowners can be energy efficient is to replace their electric tank hot water heaters with the new GeoSpring™ Hybrid Water Heater from GE. “The new GeoSpring Hybrid Water Heater from GE can cut residential water heater energy costs by more than half,” she says. “This new ENERGY STAR-qualified electric heat pump water heater will reduce operating costs up to 62 percent, saving the typical homeowner as much as $320 annually versus a home using a traditional 50-gallon electric tank water heater.” The GeoSpring™ Hybrid Water Heater recently received a “Best of What’s New” award from Popular Science magazine and was the first heat pump water heater to be ENERGY STAR qualified.
Making the switch to a heat pump water heater even more attractive, many states are offering significant rebates via the Department of Energy’s “Cash for Appliances” program. For information about rebates and incentives in your state, visit: www.geappliances.com/rebates_promotions/american-recovery-act-state-appliance-rebates.htm.
1. U.S. Energy Information Administration, End Use Consumption of Energy, 2001, http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/recs/recs2001/enduse2001/enduse2001.html
2. Food Production Daily.com, “Half of U.S. Food Goes to Waste”, http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Supply-Chain/Half-of-US-food-goes-to-waste
3. Household Food Security in the United States, 2007 from the Economic Research Service/USDA
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