Appliance advice: Save energy, save money

By Environmental News Network staff

Is there an extra refrigerator sitting in your garage, stocked with beer, waiting for the next edition of "Monday Night Football"?

Get rid of it, says Everett Shorey of Shorey Consulting Inc.

Shorey isn't concerned about your drinking habits. He's the co-author of a new report, "Global Warming and Appliances: Increasing Consumer Participation in Reducing Greenhouse Gases," and he wants you to donate your "beer fridge" because it's a waste of energy and money, and it causes pollution.

Major home appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners and clothes washers account for about one-third of U.S. residential energy use, according to estimates from the U.S Department of Energy. The energy hogs are also responsible for one-third of greenhouse gas emissions.

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Prepared for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, the report documents appliance use in the United States, evaluates how consumers decide on home appliances and discusses ways to encourage them to choose energy-efficient models.

Shorey and co-author Tom Eckman of the Northwest Power Planning Council have a simple message for consumers besides getting rid of the second fridge. Buy an energy-efficient model when the time comes to replace the first one.

"For most consumers, it is actually a reasonable economic choice to replace the old with the new, as the savings will effectively pay for the interest," said Shorey. "Environmentally correct decisions are often the economically attractive ones as well."

Despite the promise of savings, consumers aren't running out to buy cleaner, greener appliances.

"There is a lot of information available to consumers, but they do not use it," said Shorey. "It is too confusing or too hard to get to. Consumers are not stupid; it is just too complicated."

Shorey and Eckman assert that programs intended to promote energy-efficient appliances need work. These programs must be more comprehensive and target people at the right time — when they are in stores, considering the purchase of a new product, or when they are researching their options.

Programs recommended by the authors include in-store and utility rebates, marketing campaigns and training for store employees.

"In the past, programs did a bad job of using in-store sales people to talk about energy and energy efficiency," said Shorey. "When trained to do that, it works. People will buy efficient appliances."

Shorey cites the WashWise program in the Pacific Northwest as a good example. "It is a great program," he said, "with rebates, utility sponsorship, good PR, and good timing."

After the WashWise program was introduced in May 1997, the market share for energy-efficient appliances in the Pacific Northwest rose from 2-4 percent to over 12 percent. Even after buyer rebates were removed, the market share remained at about the same level, probably because of sales incentives, said Shorey.

"Hopefully, public policy-makers will use the information (in the report) to work out failings of past programs," he said. "Nothing should be done in isolation. Comprehensive programs are the key, and they can change consumers' decisions."

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Shorey Consulting Inc.
Pew Center on Global Climate Change
  • "Global Warming and Appliances: Increasing Consumer Participation in Reducing Greenhouse Gases"
U.S Department of Energy
Northwest Power Planning Council
WashWise
Energy Efficiency

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