Environmentally Friendly Household Home appliances

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Environmentally Friendly Household Home appliances

Ensuring household appliances such as cookers are eco-friendly can save on energy bills.

Many homeowners are attempting to make their living spaces more eco-friendly, in a bid to protect the planet and cut their bills by saving the energy used around the home. Key to making energy reductions is selecting eco-friendly household appliances. In some cases, this might mean simply upgrading an existing appliance to a newer and therefore more eco-friendly model, while in other cases, certain types of appliances are to be avoided in favor of energy-efficient products.

Induction Stoves

Induction stoves use less energy when compared to electric radiant and gas variants, since the stove makes use of a magnetic field, powered by electricity, to create heat in steel or iron cooking containers. Since the top of the actual stove doesn't get hot --- only the cookware and food within --- there's a reduction in the amount of energy used for cooking. This means that induction stoves are around 90 percent energy efficient, as noted by the DSGNWrld website.

Boilers

It's important that homeowners consider their choice of boiler when looking to make their houses greener, since an out-of-date boiler can have dire consequences for the amount of energy a home wastes --- and can therefore ramp up heating costs. Modern boilers are much more energy efficient when it comes to heating than older models made in the 1980s and 90s. For example, a condensing boiler, which works by extracting some of heat that would be otherwise wasted in a non-condensing boiler, is one of the most eco-friendly boiler models. According to the Which consumer website, condensing boilers have an efficiency rating of 92 percent, compared to 78 percent or even as little as 55 percent for non-condensing models.

LCD TVs

Liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions have a number of advantages in terms of their energy efficiency when compared to other types of television, such as plasma-based models. Many LCD models, especially those created in the late 2000s, feature light-emitting diode (LED) back lighting, which are not in permanent use when the device is switched off, unlike fluorescent back lights used in other televisions. A screen-blanking function can regulate television back lights so that they react to the amount of light in a room, too, which also reduces energy waste.

Compared to plasma televisions, LCD models use as much as 50 percent less energy when turned on, using 180 watts as opposed to 277 watts, according to tests undertaken by the Which consumer website.

Dishwashers

In 2010, modern dishwashers are regarded as using as much as 40 percent less energy than older machines, according to the BBC News website, so homeowners should consider updating these appliances. Compared to hand washing after a big meal, dishwashers are arguably the greener option, since they use 80 percent less water, according to the Electrolux brand.

Consumers should look to purchase a dishwasher with an energy label from organizations such as the European Union or Energy Star, which will confirm the green credentials of the device. Homeowners should run their dishwashers on full load, as half loads waste energy, as noted by the BBC News website, while eco-friendly dishwasher tablets are available to further energy reduction.

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Tuesday, July 23, 2013