When it comes the being green there are many aspects of your house to look at. If have been trying to save more and more energy then you are probably stuck with the little things that you must carefully examine. What If you have just decided to become green and you live in an apartment. That means that you should start with the big things first. The big things will obviously be the larger appliances that use up the most energy to operate. Another way of looking at it is looking for the appliances that create the larger portion of you bills. Most of the condo new school make use of such green appliances.
Many of the larger appliances include a washing machine, dryer, vacuum cleaner, refrigerator, and a microwave. These are not all of the appliances that you could have. They are just a handful that you could start with to change you apartment green.
When it comes to getting a washing machine, most people look for the cheapest one that they can find. The cheapest ones are almost always top-loading washers. The thing about these is they use much more water and energy than the front-loading washers. Therefore, the front-loading washer would more than pay for itself over a relatively short period of time. According to the Best Buy website, one of the Samsung front-loading washers operates for less then $10 a year.
When it comes to being green with a dryer, the best thing that you can do is get rid of it. There is really no way around it. It takes an enormous amount of energy to generate the heat that is needed to dry your clothes. This is why it is so hard for a dryer to be Energy Star qualified. Gas dryers are not as safe and generate unnecessary carbon. If you just have to get a dryer then get the biggest one you can find. This will reduce the overall time you have to have the dryer operating. The ideal situation is to only have 1 load. Sometimes this can outperform Energy Star qualified dryers such as the Asko dryer because it slightly less power than most regular dryers. Having to use it twice will defeat the purpose of getting it.
Next is your vacuum cleaner. The two things to look at are bags and power usage. A vacuum cleaner that does not use bags is an obviously plus when it comes to being green. Power usage is no so obvious because vacuum cleaners do seem like they use up a lot of energy. I power on two vacuum cleaners simultaneously and in less than 10 seconds the circuit breaker cut the power to that room. The best way to solve this problem is the get a Dyson Ultra Compact vacuum cleaner. With its 6.5 amp motor it uses almost have the power as a conventional vacuum cleaner. Best of all, it is does not use bags.
Refrigerators are much easier to buy. You just have to make sure that it is Energy Star qualified. Another thing you can look for is a water filtration system. This will give you no reason at all to buy bottled water. Refrigerators such as the Electrolux Side-by-Side refrigerator fit this description and cost less than $50 a year to operate.
Microwaves are not as hard but you still need to do some research when buying them. It would probably best to get a 900-watt midsized microwave, such as the Sharp 1.5 cubic foot microwave, so that you won’t have to use it twice. Most microwaves use over 1000 watts so you can burn your food by mistake.
