22 April 2008 156 views One Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

Energy efficient appliances seem ideal: not only are they better for the environment because they require less energy to run, they bring down your monthly utility cost by a significant amount. What’s not to love?

Yes, an energy efficient washer and dryer set can run a few hundred dollars more (based on glancing at price tags at my local big box store). However, according to the Energy Star website (run by the EPA), an energy efficient washer can save you an average of $550 over the life of a washer.

If you own your home, and are planning to purchase new appliances, you may already be thinking about whether you want to select energy efficient appliances. If you live in an apartment or other rental, bringing energy efficient appliances into your home may be much harder. Landlords who provide such appliances as washers or dryers tend to replace old appliances with whatever they want — that is to say, not necessarily what you want.

But, as long as you have to pay for your utilities, having energy efficient appliances is in your best interest. You just have to convince your landlord it’s also in his or her best interest. My current washer and dryer seems to be nearing the end of its run — I’m not entirely sure which of the two of us is older — and I’ve started putting together my list of arguments:

• I’ll be less likely to complain about the rent hike that they’re planning.
• There will be less chance of water damage because I hung up clothes to dry, rather than run an expensive dryer.
• The landlord gets to pocket a government rebate for changing residential appliances over to more efficient models. How much of a rebate the landlord can expect varies by state.

Honestly, I’m not really expecting my landlord to come through on this one. I’m fairly sure that the company managing my apartment complex has a storage closet full of washers and dryers of the same variety as the set in my apartment. They’ll probably just try to get me to hold out until whenever they’re ready to buy new appliances for the whole complex. But that won’t stop me from asking — and, hopefully, getting my fellow tenants to ask as well.

I think the savings that come from using energy efficient appliances are worth the effort to get them. It’s more than a feeling that I should do my part for the environment; it’s the fact that that energy prices are going to continue to rise for quite a while, I think, and every cent I don’t have to put into paying my electricity bill is a penny I’ll be glad to have.