Green Home Guru

It doesn't matter if you are trying to save the earth, save money or both; energy efficiency pays. It is like getting paid cash to make your home a better place to live. Many energy-efficient appliances, devices and heating or cooling systems cost no more than their inefficient counterparts. While some cost more, the extra cost is easily recouped in a few years.

When you buy an appliance, you pay more than just the sales price. It is a commitment to paying the cost of operating the appliance for as long as you own it and the dollars can add up quickly. For example, the operating cost of a refrigerator over 15-20 years can be more than the initial purchase price. A 75-watt light bulb will cost about $6 to operate over the course of its short lifespan.

The sum of the purchase price and the energy cost of running an appliance or light bulb over its lifetime is called its life-cycle cost. The life-cycle costs of energy-efficient appliances are lower than those of average models even though the average-efficiency models may cost less to buy.

This is easily demonstrated using light bulbs as an example. A 75-watt incandescent light bulb costs about 75 cents. A compact fluorescent bulb with the equivalent brightness would be a 20-watt version available for about $4. While the cost of a CFL is over 5 times more expensive, it will last 10,000 hours. This is greater than 13 times the lifespan of an incandescent. This story is good even before you talk about energy-savings.

An incandescent bulb turns 90% of the energy it uses into heat. The remaining 10% is the light you see. A compact fluorescent bulb (CFL) creates almost no noticeable heat and creates the same amount of light as an incandescent by using approximately ¼ of the energy. The table below shows how much you can save by replacing a 75-watt incandescent with a 20-watt CFL. Multiply the $ amount by the number of incandescent bulbs you can replace, and you can see that real money is staying in your pocket. 

To increase the economic benefits of buying more energy-efficient appliances and increasing the overall home efficiency, many state or utility companies are getting in the act. Many have created rebate programs for the purchase of energy-efficient appliances and fixtures. This isn't just about them doing good things for the environment, it pays for them too. It costs less money to conserve energy than to build new power plants. They save money by paying you money.

Rebates are most common for high-efficiency heat pumps, central air conditioners, refrigerators, clothes washers and even light bulbs. These programs are much more common among electric companies than gas companies, although some gas utilities offer rebates for high-efficiency furnaces and boilers. Check with your utilities about rebate programs in your area.