When it comes to convenience in the home, your home’s appliances may be costing you more than you think. So first, check out Union Power’s Appliance Calculator to determine the cost of running your appliances. Then, installing a new ENERGY STAR-rated appliance may help. Below are a few suggestions from energy.gov.

Dishwasher vs. Hand Washing

A standard-sized ENERGY STAR certified dishwasher costs about $35 per year to run and can save you an average of 3,870 gallons of water over its lifetime.

If you still wash your dishes by hand, you’re wasting more than just time.

• Save Money: Washing dishes in a dishwasher rather than hand washing can cut your utility bills by about $130 per year.
• Save Time: Instead of scrubbing, rinsing, and drying each dish, load them in the dishwasher and press start.
• Get Better Cleaning: ENERGY STAR-certified dishwashers have features that result in better cleaning by boosting water temperatures to 140 degrees, which allows for improved disinfection compared to hand washing.
• Scrape, Don’t Rinse: Rinsing dishes before loading them into the dishwasher increases the total water and energy used. Save yourself the rinsing – today’s detergents are designed to do the cleaning, so you don’t have to. If your dirty dishes sit overnight, use your dishwasher’s rinse feature. It uses a fraction of the water needed to hand rinse.
• Load It Up: Dishwashers use about the same amount of energy and water regardless of the number of dishes inside, so run full loads whenever possible.

Clothes Washer

• Fill It Up: Clothes washers use about the same amount of energy regardless of the size of the load, so run full loads whenever possible.
• Wash With Cold Water: Water heating consumes about 90% of the energy to operate a clothes washer. Switching your temperature setting from hot to warm can cut energy use in half. Using the cold cycle reduces energy use even more.
• Avoid The Sanitary Cycle: This super-hot cycle increases energy use significantly.
• Choose The High Spin Speed: If your clothes washer has spin options, choose the high spin speed or the extended spin option when appropriate to reduce the amount of remaining moisture in your clothes after washing.
• Leave The Door Open: With front-loading washers, leave the door open after each use. If the door is closed, the seal can trap moisture and lead to mold when the machine is not in use.