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Go energy efficient
Need a new household appliance or piece of home electronics? Buy Energy Star models.
The U.S. EPA’s Energy Star program recommends appliances and home electronic devices that consume less electricity. After all, one-third of our country’s carbon dioxide pollution is released by coal plants generating electricity, and carbon dioxide is the primary pollutant causing global warming.
Appliances can be conservation superstars.
According to the U.S. EPA, if just 10% of Americans used Energy Star appliances, it would be the carbon dioxide pollution reduction equivalent of planting 1.7 million acres of new trees.
As if reducing global warming pollution weren’t enough reason to buy Energy Star products, here’s another: You save money.
The more Energy Star products you buy, the more you shave off the $1,900 the average American household spends on electricity for appliances each year.
Keeping plugged-in can equal the annual output of 17 power plants.
Normally, we don’t think of electronic devices as being electricity guzzlers. Truth is, they’re not. So how can Energy Star models make such a difference? Because in the average home, electronics are responsible for more than 25% of household electricity use.
Energy Star-recommended home electronic devices use between 30%-75% less energy when turned off.
Here’s what the U.S. EPA says that means in terms of reducing CO2 pollution:
The average home has roughly two TVs, a VCR, a DVD player and three telephones. If these items were replaced with Energy Star models, it would reduce global warming pollution by more than 12 million tons—that’s like taking more than three million cars off the road.
One last tip concerns those 230 million little battery chargers we use to keep our power tools, electric shavers, and cell phones ready to go. Energy Star chargers use 35% less energy than conventional models. If we used them instead, we would save more than one billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year, while reducing carbon dioxide pollution by one million tons—equivalent to the emissions of hundreds of thousands of cars.
Visit the products section of EPA’s Energy Star website to learn about the vast number of Energy Star products now available.
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