TopTen Energy Saving Products
TopTen launched a consumer guide giving people around the world the opportunity of making informed decisions on the energy costs of appliances they buy. Topten’s goal is to fight climate change and energy consumption by driving demand and encouraging innovation for super-efficient products in common categories from appliances to electronics.
TopTen provides a real-time list of the very best so consumers can achieve very real cost and energy savings. Energy-efficient products offer one of the quickest, least painful routes to significant greenhouse gas reductions. The most efficient products in common consumer categories such as refrigerators and televisions use up to 50 percent less energy than the category average. Even a modest consumer shift (10 percent of current sales) to the most energy efficient products could have a considerable impact on climate change by eliminating the release 100 million metric tons of carbon-equivalent gases each year.
Founded by the Swiss Agency for Energy Efficiency and WWF, TopTen’s logic is simple. By naming the ten most efficient products in each category, the organizations make it easy for consumers to cut through the clutter of products on the market. And growing demand and publicity for efficient products in turn spurs manufacturers to innovate, accelerating the introduction of next-generation efficiency. The product selection and ranking on the TopTen website is up to date and based on independent research.
- Energy conservation alone is the largest source of all actions to curb CO2 emissions by more than one third in the next few decades.
- Energy efficiency is the quickest, least lifestyle-changing route to planet-saving levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
- If hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide make smart choices for the most efficient products, they will not only save money from increased energy bills, they will also substantially cut global warming and other pollution.
- On average, products on a TopTen list use half the energy of a standard model.
- Their goal is to encourage manufacturer innovation by growing demand for increasingly energy-efficient products, and recognize leaders in the race for energy efficiency.
Energy Conservation On The Road
Transportation accounts for more than 60% of the energy consumed in Hawai‘i. While air transportation uses the largest portion (nearly 40%), trucks, buses, and cars consume roughly 20%. According to the Hawai‘i Department of Transportation, the number of registered vehicles on O‘ahu alone has almost doubled in the past 20 years. So taking steps to use fuel more efficiently on the road is a great way to help shrink Hawaii’s carbon footprint, and stay green.
- Walk or bike when you aren’t in a hurry or have shorter distances to travel.
- Carpool, vanpool, or take the bus whenever you can.
- Keep your car or truck tuned up to maximize fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.
- Make sure your tires are properly inflated, which can reduce your emissions by as much as 3%.
- Trade your gas guzzler for a fuel-efficient car, a hybrid, a flexible fuel vehicle, or a clean diesel vehicle (which would allow you to use bio-diesel).
- Buy a motorcycle or moped.
- Driving calmly and sensibly can improve your gas mileage by 33% at highway speeds and by 5% around town.
- Shed some weight. Leave your toys out of the car, because an extra 100 pounds in your vehicle could reduce your mileage by up to 2%.
- Avoid idling. Idling gets zero miles per gallon. The bigger your engine, the more gas you waste when idling.
- Go A/C free. Using air-conditioning dramatically reduces your mileage, especially in stop-and-go city traffic.
Energy Conservation at Work
Nearly 40% of the energy consumed in Hawaii is used to power buildings, so conserving energy at work is a great way to reduce our energy needs. Each year in the United States buildings use $200 billion worth of electricity and natural gas. If the energy efficiency of U.S. buildings improved by 10%, Americans would save about $20 billion and reduce greenhouse gases equal to the emissions from about 30 million vehicles. Here are some ways you can reduce the environmental impact where you work.
- Cut back on air-conditioning, by taking advantage of the cross-breezes of the trade winds to cool your building.
- Close windows and doors when the air-conditioner is on.
- Install weather stripping to fix leaks that allow cool air to escape.
- Have the air-conditioning system checked regularly to be sure it is running at optimal efficiency.
- Set the thermostat to the warmest comfortable setting.
- Use natural or energy-efficient lighting and eliminate unnecessary lighting.
- Install energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), which typically use 75% less energy, and last 10 times longer than traditional incandescent bulbs.
- Turn off lights in unoccupied offices, conference rooms, break rooms, and bathrooms.
- Using timers or occupancy sensors in restrooms and conference rooms also reduces the time lights are on in little-used places. The Navy has installed sensors at Pearl Harbor which are expected to save $90,000 annually.
- Use the power management and automatic sleep features of computers. Screen savers do not reduce a monitor’s energy use.
- Battery chargers for mobile phones, PDAs, and other digital devices draw electricity when they’re not in use. Eliminate phantom loads by unplugging them when your digital devices aren’t charging.
- Turn off and unplug coffee makers, microwaves, and toaster ovens when not in use. Use a smart power strip to cut power when it’s not needed.
- Look for the Energy Star logo when replacing desktop computers, laptops, printers, fax machines, copiers, scanners, lighting, air-conditioners, and telephones.
- Also, commit to buying recycled paper products, which require 70% to 90% less energy to make.
Kauai Efficient Appliances
Appliances account for about 35% of your total electricity bill on Kauai, but you can reduce the amount of power they use by upgrading to new, energy efficient Energy Star models. Some of the new appliances work better, look better, and have more features yet consume half of the electricity of an older model. Switching from a 1990 refrigerator to a 2010 Energy Star model could save you about $200 per year. Or maybe you no longer need that old second refrigerator? The old beast probably costs you a fortune, particularly if you have it out in the hot carport or garage. In fact, upgrading your primary refrigerator to a larger, Energy Star refrigerator will be a savings over two smaller inefficient refrigerators.
When buying a new appliance, consider the energy efficiency of the item along with the sale price. This is like looking at the miles per gallon when buying a new car. The decision you make today will affect your electricity bill for years to come. The cost of energy efficient appliances is typically higher than standard models, but the money saved over time will more than cover the initial cost. To sweeten the deal, local energy companies often provide cash rebates for qualifying energy efficient appliances, including ceiling fans, clothes washers, dish washers, refrigerators, and room air conditioners.
Energy Star appliances are about 25% more efficient than average appliances. Read the Energy Guide labels to compare estimated annual operating costs between comparable models in order to select the most efficient appliance for your money. The Energy Guide labels are required on water heaters, refrigerators, freezers, clothes washers, dishwashers, and room air conditioners, and is only awarded to appliances that significantly exceed the minimum national standards.
Kauai Efficient Cooling
There are many ways to cool down your Kauai home without AC to save you energy and money. With all the bright sunshine we get in Hawaii, cooling your home can be a energy hogging task if you use air conditioning.
Under the sun, a roof can reach 150 degrees fahrenheit or more (even when it’s only 80 degrees outside) and transfer heat into your living space. Keeping the heat out of your home is essential to making your home energy efficient. Radiant barriers are thin sheets of reflective material installed in the roof, ceiling, or walls that reduce the transfer of heat and can reflect up to 85 percent of the sun’s heat.
Installing attic insulation will absorb heat passing into the home through the roof. Insulation can reduce ceiling temperatures by more than 15 degrees making you more comfortable in your home.
Hot air can get trapped in your attic and keep your house warmer than necessary. A ridge vent located at the highest point of your roof uses the low pressure created by wind traveling across your roof to suck out the hot air. Ridge vents should be combined with an eave vent or a soffit vent (located at the lowest part of your roof) so that fresh air can be let into the attic to replace the hot air.
Solar-powered attic fans use clean, free energy from the sun to draw out the hot air and reduce attic temperature by as much as 40 degrees.
The easiest way for direct hot daylight to enter your house is through your windows. The best strategy to cool your home is shading. You can try overhangs, awnings, or trees to shade your windows that face the sun during the day. Inside drapes, blinds, or tinting can also help block out the sun’s rays.
Trade winds blow about 90% of the time in summer and about 50% of the time in the winter, so by opening the windows you can harness that energy and let your home cool using natural resources. The further apart the open windows are (opposite corners of the house) the more efficient the wind will be in cooling your home.
Ceiling fans can also create a gentle breeze that can take over comfort duties when the wind quits. Using an Energy Star ceiling fan instead of a typical room air conditioner can save about $446 per year.
Kauai Efficient Lighting
If every American home replaced just one light with an Energy Star light, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year. A compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) will save about $30 over its lifetime because it uses 75 percent less energy and lasts about 10 times longer than an incandescent bulb. One bulb in every home will save about $700 million in annual energy costs, and prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to the emissions of about 800,000 cars. Lighting a home on Kauai only consumes about 8% of your electricity bill, but it is the easiest place to start making reductions. Daylighting, compact fluorescents, and light emitting diodes (LEDs) are bright ideas to consider.
Daylighting is the practice of placing windows, skylights, daylights, or openings so that during the day natural light provides effective internal lighting. New technologies, such as the Solatube daylight allow you to bring light into rooms that are not directly below the roof. These improvements also currently qualify for a 30% federal tax credit as well. Also, consider several small skylights instead of one large skylight for better distribution. Nature provides the best light available – and it’s free.
CFLs are miniature versions of full-sized fluorescents, and screw into standard lamp sockets giving off light that looks just like incandescent bulbs. They use 75% less electricity than out-dated incandescent light bulbs and last about ten times longer (over 8000 hours versus under 1000 hours). They also produce about 75 percent less heat, which reduces cooling costs and helps you stay cool.
LEDs are small, solid light bulbs with diffuser lenses which are extremely energy-efficient. Currently, the high cost of producing LEDs is a roadblock to widespread use, but researchers are finding new technologies to drive the price of LEDs into a more competitive range with CFLs. The benefits over CFLs and incandescents are: they use only 2-10 watts of electricity, they last up to 10 times longer than compact fluorescents, they hold up well to jarring and bumping, they produce less heat, and they are mercury free.
