APPLIANCES: The Best Washing Machines of 2008

At GetWithGreen.com we appreciate good solid investigative efforts, which brings real insight to all of homeowners who are remodeling.  Justin Thomas over at MetaEfficient.com just completed some serious investgation on 2008 washing machines, and it is excellent. 

MetaEfficient’s article digs deep into the ENERGY STAR website (saving you valuable time!), and exposes the most efficient machines by manufacturer.    If you are in the market for a new washing machine this is a must read!  

Check out:  The Most Efficient Washing Machines of 2008.

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ENERGY STAR: New podcast offers tips for efficiency of your remodel

ENERGY STAR® Shows Simplicity of Home Energy Efficiency in New Video Podcast.  This short podcast goes room by room and offers you easy tips to incorporate in your home today, and your remodel!  You can watch it online, or on your iPod.

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire – February 19, 2008) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ENERGY STAR program today released its first ever video podcast, At Home with ENERGY STAR. The video podcast is hosted by Tom Kraeutler, the voice of the nationally syndicated radio program The Money Pit and the Home Improvement Editor for AOL. Kraeutler takes viewers on a room-by-room tour, pointing out areas for energy-efficient improvements. The podcast also brings to life ENERGY STAR’s interactive tool, ENERGY STAR @ home (http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=products.es_at_home), which offers energy saving tips for every room of the house.

GetWithGreen.com found the podcast under the Products section of the Energy Star site.

“This podcast is an invaluable resource for anyone looking to make green improvements to their home while saving money,” said Kraeutler. “Homeowners can use it as a step-by-step guide to improving their home’s energy efficiency. The tips we discuss are incredibly simple yet make a great impact on energy bills and the environment.”

Filmed at a home in Seattle, Washington, At Home with ENERGY STAR gives real life examples of easy tips that homeowners can use to help save energy. For example, if every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR-qualified compact fluorescent light, we would save enough energy to light more than three million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

“Most Americans do not realize that the average home produces twice as much greenhouse gas as the average car,” said Denise Durrett, communications manager for ENERGY STAR. “By making a few small changes at home Americans can join the fight against global warming and make a real difference.”

Tips offered in the video podcast include how replacing an older refrigerator can cut energy bills in half, installing a programmable thermostat, ensuring a home has adequate insulation and unplugging cell phone chargers when not in use.

The video podcast is available for viewing on the ENERGY STAR Web site. The podcast is also available on iTunes, the AOL Real Estate Web site at www.realestate.aol.com and The Money Pit Web site at www.moneypit.com.

Make sure you look into the GetWithGreen.com categories to your right for appliances, insulation, and ceiling fan products that go a long ways toward improving efficiency in your home! 

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AUDIO/VISUAL: New Energy Star standards set for Televisions

Because you are putting them in your new kitchens, GetWithGreen.com reported to you months ago that the ENERGY STAR team was working on new energy usage requirements for TVs that are powered “ON”. 

As you may know if you read our review of 50″ plasmas, the ONLY thing ENERGY STAR offers today for is a review of the power TVs use when they are turned “OFF”. 

Today, ENERGY STAR announced that on November 1, 2008 TVs will be required to use 30% less power in the ON mode – if they want to claim Energy Star compliance!  The requirement for televisions over 50 inches would be 318 Watts when turned ON.  In our recent review you will see that today’s ENERGY STAR televisions do not meet the standards, so we are in for some improvements!!

Here is what ENERGY STAR had to say:

(Washington, D.C. – Feb. 5, 2008) Today EPA is announcing a revised Energy Star specification for televisions. Effective Nov. 1, 2008, TVs that carry the Energy Star label will be up to 30 percent more efficient than conventional models and will save energy while they are on and when they are off. The new modifications are expected to prevent greenhouse gas emissions while offering U.S. consumers the very best in terms of feature-rich, high-quality TVs.

“Energy Star’s new specifications for televisions are turning the channel on energy guzzling sets ? making them go the way of rabbit-ears and the black and white TV,” said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson.

After the new specification goes into effect, if all TVs sold in the United States meet the Energy Star requirements, the savings in energy costs will grow to about Read more

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