Trattner's Hints and Tips
| How much energy do different appliances use? Check out the kilowatt hour and cost chart. |
| A full freezer is more energy efficient than a partially full freezer. If your freezer isn't full, add old milk jugs filled with water to take up empty space. Source: www.energyhawk.com |
| Insulating your water heater, particularly heaters made before 1992, will reduce the heat lost through the walls of the tank by 25-40 percent. Source: www.energyhawk.com |
| For every 10 degree you lower the temperature of your hot water header, you reduce the heater's energy consumption by 3-5 percent. Source: www.energyhawk.com |
| Most of the energy used by a washing machine comes from heating the water, and one full load uses less energy than two small loads. Set washer loads for “warm” or “cold” wash instead of hot, and only run full loads. Source: www.energyhawk.com |
| Automatic clothes driers with moisture-sensor cutoffs or temperature-sensor cutoffs use 10 to 15 percent less energy than driers with timers. Source: www.energyhawk.com |
| Televisions and many other appliances use energy and cost you money even when you aren't using them. Any appliance with “convenience features” (like instant-on) is drawing power while itï¿1ž2s turned off. “Leaking electricity” costs the average U.S. house 50 watts of electricity continuously. Source: www.energyhawk.com |
| Direct current transformers (those little black boxes that plug into the wall outlet) that recharge your cordless phone, hand-held vacuum, answering machine and electric toothbrush draw 2-6 watts of power, even after the appliance is fully charged. Source: www.energyhawk.com |
| Flat screen monitors use only one-third the power of conventional monitors. Source: www.energyhawk.com |
| Computers and monitors in sleep mode and screensaver mode are still consuming as much electricity as they do when they're in use. Source: www.energyhawk.com |
| A heat-reflecting filter can be mixed into paint and painted on walls that will keep warmth in during winter and warmth out during summer. Source: www.energyhawk.com |
| Many energy efficient appliances are exempt from sales tax or are tax deductible. Find out what your state has to offer. The Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency provides comprehensive information on state, local, utility and federal incentives that promote renewable energy and energy efficiency. For more information, visit www.dsireusa.org. |
| A heavy coat of dust on a light bulb can block up to half of the light. Source: www.powerhousekids.com |
| Across America, home refrigerators use the electricity of 25 large power plants every year. Source: www.powerhousekids.com |
| A hot water faucet that leaks one drop per second can add up to 165 gallons a month. That's more than one person uses in two weeks. Source: www.powerhousekids.com |
| An energy-smart clothes washer can save more water in one year than one person drinks in an entire lifetime! Source: www.powerhousekids.com |
| Only 10 percent of the electricity used by an incandescent light bulb is turned into light. The other 90 percent is wasted as heat. A compact fluorescent light bulb uses 75 percent less energy than a regular bulb-and it can last up to four years. Source: www.powerhousekids.com |
| A crack as small as 1/16th of an inch around a window frame can let in as much cold air as leaving the window open three inches! Source: www.powerhousekids.com |
| An automatic dishwasher uses less hot water than doing dishes by hand-an average of six gallons less, or more than 2,000 gallons per year. Source: www.powerhousekids.com |
| Opening the refrigerator door releases up to 30 percent of the cold air inside. Source: www.powerhousekids.com |
| Every year, more than $13 billion worth of energy leaks from houses through small holes and cracks. That's more than $150 per family! Source: www.powerhousekids.com |
| According to the Reynolds Metal Company, recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television for three hours. Source: www.earth911.org |
| According to the Reynolds Metal Company, Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild it entire commercial air fleet four times every year. Source: www.earth911.org |
| According to the Center for Ecological Technology, recycled paper generates 95 percent less air pollution than virgin paper: each ton of recycled paper saves 60 lbs. of air pollution. Source: www.earth911.org |
| According to the Environmental Protection Agency recycling one glass container saves enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for four hours. Source: www.earth911.org |
| According to NASA, recycled glass generates 20 percent less air pollution and 50 percent less water pollution. Source: www.earth911.org |
| According to the Environmental Protection Agency one ton of glass made from 50 percent recycled materials saves 250 lbs. of mining waste. Source: www.earth911.org |
| According to the Environmental Protection Agency, every ton of paper that is recycled saves 17 trees and 7,000 gallons of water. Source: www.earth911.org |
| According to Pennsylvania State University, if Americans recycled every plastic bottle they used, American landfills would be spared 2 billion tons of plastic. Source: www.earth911.org |
| According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans use enough plastic wrap to wrap all of Texas every year. Source: www.earth911.org |
| According to the Worldwatch Institute: * One fifth of all wood harvested in the world ends up in paper. * It takes 2 to 3.5 tons of trees to make one ton of paper. * In some countries, including the United States, paper accounts for nearly 40 percent of all municipal solid waste. * Making paper uses more water per ton than any other product in the world. |
| More than a ton of resources is saved for every ton of glass recycled-1,330 pounds of sand, 433 pounds of soda ash, 433 pounds of limestone, and 151 pounds of feldspar. Also a ton of glass produced from raw materials creates 384 pounds of mining waste. Using 50 percent recycled glass cuts the waste by 75 percent. Source: University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Office of Waste Management |
| In one year the average house uses 38 percent of its energy on heating, 19 percent on hot water, 21 percent on major appliances, 15 percent on other appliances and 7 percent for lighting. Source: Colorado State University Extension Office |
| Turning off your personal computer, laser printer and copier at night and on weekends can save up to $100 a year. Per Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), it costs from 1 to 2 cents per hour to run a computer. That might not sound like a lot of money, but for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, that's $131 a year. Source: Doris Dobkins, money saving expert and publisher of Smart Money News |
| A notebook computer uses one-tenth the energy of a desktop PC and can save from $40 $100 in energy cost per year, depending on usage. Source: www.thriftyfun.com/tf000852.tip.html |
| Lasers printers use an average of 80-100 watts or more when printing, dot matrix printers only use an average of 15-20 watts, and ink jet printers-the most energy efficient of all-use only about 10 watts. Source: www.thriftyfun.com/tf000852.tip.html |
| According to Ellen Brown, an environmental writer, the typical American family uses 20 percent of its water on showers and baths, 9 percent on potable uses (drinking and cooking), 16 percent for washing clothes and dishes, 19 percent is flushed down the toilet, and 36 percent is used on lawn and gardens. Source: www.sustainable-media.com |
| Refrigerator/freezer models with a top freezer use 7 to 13 percent less energy than side-by-side models. Source: www.energystar.gov |
| Refrigerator/freezers that must be defrosted manually use half the energy of automatic defrost models, but they must be defrosted periodically to remain energy efficient. Source: www.energystar.gov |
| Refrigerator/freezers with anti-sweat heaters will consume 5 to 10 percent more energy than those without. Source: www.energystar.gov |
| The most energy-efficient refrigerator/freezers are in the 16-20 cubic-foot size. While it's generally true that larger refrigerators use more energy than smaller one, it's usually less costly to run one larger refrigerator than two smaller ones. Source: www.energystar.gov |
| The U.S. Department of Energy website, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, offers a free downloadable 36-page booklet in English and Spanish, “Tips for Saving Energy and Money at Home!” |
| ENERGY STAR® office equipment is widely available and results in dramatic savings, as much as 90 percent for some products. Overall, ENERGY STAR office products use about half the electricity of standard equipment. Along with saving energy directly, this equipment can reduce air-conditioning loads, noise from fans and transformers, and electromagnetic field eAn ENERGY STAR computer uses 70 percent less electricity than computers without this designation. If left inactive, ENERGY STAR computers enter a low-power mode and use 15 watts or less. Spending a large portion of time in low-power mode not only saves energy, but helps equipment run cooler and last longer. Source: The U.S. Department of Energy missions from monitors. Source: The U.S. Department of Energy |
| If all of the estimated 100 million dead cell phones in the U.S. were recycled, we could save enough energy to power more than 194,000 U.S. households with electricity for one year. Source: www.epa.gov/cellphone |