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HOW CAN I USE MY APPLIANCES MORE EFFICIENTLY?

Whether your appliances are the newest, most-efficient models or they nearly qualify as antiques, you can do your part to waste less energy by using them smarter.

Here are some free and easy ways to cut waste, and your energy bill:

Refrigerator/Freezer #FridgeMaintenance 

  • Move your refrigerator away from the stove, dishwasher and heating vents. The heat from those devices makes the refrigerator work harder to keep cold—and that’s unnecessary and inefficient.
  • Vacuum your refrigerator’s coils every three months. When dirt builds up on the coils, the appliance has to use more energy to keep your food cold.
  • Repair door gaskets when they come loose to prevent cold air from leaking out of the refrigerator.
  • If your freezer doesn’t self-defrost, do it yourself as soon as a quarter-inch of ice builds up. An ice-laden freezer is an inefficient appliance.

Dishwasher

  • There’s no need to rinse dishes by hand before you load them into a dishwasher with a pre-rinse or rinse/hold cycle. Scrape food from your plates and let the dishwasher do its job.
  • Set your dishwasher to its “energy-saver” feature and leave it there.

Stove Top

  • Match the size of your pots and pans to the size of the burner you’re using. Placing a small pot on a large burner is a big waste of heat.
  • Cover pots and pans with lids so you can cook at a lower burner setting.

Clothes Washer and Dryer

  • Select the “small load” setting on your washing machine when you don’t have enough laundry to fill the tub. At that setting, the washer will fill with less water.
  • Towels, blankets and other heavy cottons take longer to dry than lighter-weight clothes; dry them separately to speed up drying time for the lightweights.
  • Inspect your dryer vent every now and then and clean it if it’s blocked. A blocked vent makes your dryer work harder and can cause a fire.
  • Air-dry some of your clothes to save energy. Air-drying can prolong the life of some fabrics, too.

Water Heater

  • Set your water heat to 120 degrees. That’s hot enough, even though some manufacturers pre-set theirs to 140 degrees.

Did you know? The government’s Energy Star program, which shows which appliances are the most energy efficient, does not label clothes dryers. Most dryers use about the same amount of energy, so one model won’t save you more money on your electric bill than another.

Monthly To-Do: April 2019| #FridgeMaintenance

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