Today's appliances are way more than a convenience-they're life and time savers. Most of us can't imagine how we'd get along without the devices that clean our clothes, cook our food and wash our dishes.
But after heating, cooling and hot water, those helpful appliances require the most energy in the average household. And we've focused so hard on reducing energy consumption-and homeowner costs-in the rest of our Lab Home, we knew we'd need to take a hard look at appliances, too.
We started with ENERGY STAR®, a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy. It rates many home appliances, giving star ratings to those that offer great performance along with energy efficiency.
For example, the ENERGY STAR washer in our lab home uses 30% less energy and 50% less water than an average washer. Over the washer's 10-year lifespan, that's enough water to fill three swimming pools, and enough energy savings that it's like getting the matching dryer for free. We've also installed an ENERGY STAR refrigerator and dishwasher, which means lower energy and water bills for the homeowner.
ENERGY STAR doesn't rate ovens or dryers, but we also opted for high-efficiency models of these appliances to keep the lab home's energy costs low.
Choosing efficient appliances is the first step. During our three years of testing, we'll look at how these appliances are performing as part of the whole house, how they interact with other systems like hot water and HVAC, and how their use contributes to the house's overall heat and moisture levels.
