Sustain Your Life, Sustain Your Appliances

By: Lilyan Baker

In a world filled with sustainable living ideas, it is difficult to think past the recycling of plastic bottles and cans. How about receiving more than a warm fuzzy feeling for living a sustainable lifestyle and actually seeing some cash grow in your pocket? Follow these simple tips to make your appliances not only benefit Planet Earth, but also your pocketbook!

Open the Door to More Savings

Clean beyond the refrigerator shelves by cleaning the condenser coils located behind your fridge at least once a year. Use a brush or handheld vacuum to remove loose particles, including dirt, dust and pet hair.
Give your refrigerator some breathing room by keeping the appliance at least two or three inches away from the wall. Also, place your refrigerator away from direct sunlight and other appliances that produce heat to make your refrigerator run more efficiently.
Do you crave a midnight snack but can’t decide what to eat? Keep your fridge full, not only to satisfy all of your midnight munchies, but to also help the fridge save energy during recovery from the door being open.
Check and care for the rubber seals surrounding the inside of your fridge by using mild soap twice a year to help prevent cracked and torn seals. Use your money to test the seals by placing a dollar bill halfway inside the refrigerator door. If the dollar pulls out easily, then you’re losing money in more than one way, and it may be time to replace the rubber seals.
Enjoy a night of leftovers and defrost your fridge regularly. The frost build-up wastes energy by making the compressor run longer.
Take your refrigerator’s temperature and see if you are wasting energy. Make sure that the refrigerator runs between 36 F and 40 F and the freezer runs between 0 F and 5 F. If it is kept 10 F colder than recommended, you may be using 25 percent more energy than needed.

Keep the Heat Inside of Your Oven & Out of Your Pocket

If you notice your food cooking unevenly or taking longer than before, it may be time to replace cracked or torn door seals that can allow up to 20 percent of heat to escape.
When cooking your favorite meal, turn off electric burners two to three minutes before you finish cooking and let the residual heat sauté the rest to perfection.
Make sure to use pots and pans that fit the burner so the heat will evenly distribute to your pan instead of the air.
Save yourself a step by planning out your cooking schedule to only bake in the oven instead of preheating. Sometimes there is no need to preheat if the food requires more than an hour in the oven.
Stop your sneak peeks! Each time you open the oven door, the temperature drops 25 F.
Utilize your oven’s leftover heat by turning on the self-cleaning feature immediately. This will reduce the amount of energy needed to reach the cleaning temperature and will turn your leftover heat into even more savings.
When tidying up your kitchen don’t forget about your electric and gas burners. Clean burners allow for a more efficient use of energy.

Wash, Dry and Ring out the Best Savings for Your Wallet

Use the high-speed cycle on your washer to toss out more moisture from your clothes, which allows for less time in the dryer and more time for you to spend your money saved.
Make sure your load is full. One load uses the same amount of energy each time, so why not get more bang for your buck by washing more clothes at once?
It’s okay to air out your laundry, just make sure it is clean. Line-dry your clothes as much as possible and you can see up to 5 percent savings on your energy costs.
Clean your dryer lint screen after every use. Dryer efficiency decreases as lint collects over time. More importantly, lint build-up can be a fire hazard, so make sure to have it cleaned periodically by a professional.
Refresh your clothes by washing a load in cold water. This saves on energy costs and helps lengthen the life of your clothes by preserving the color and by strengthening the fabric.

Clean Plate, Clean Mind

Save up to 20 gallons of water by hand-scraping your dishes instead of running water for your pre-rinse.
Give your dishes a breath of fresh air by turning your dishwasher setting to air-dry or open the dishwasher after the rinse cycle.
Hold off on washing your dishes until you have a full load. Your dishwasher uses the same amount of water per cycle, so fill it up with all of your hand-scraped plates.
Give your dishwasher a wash of its own by running an empty cycle with a citric acid-based cleaner. The cleaner will remove soap and calcium build-up that makes your dishwasher worker harder than it has to.

“By maintaining your appliances regularly, you can extend the life of your investment and save energy,” said Ron Rice, Mr. Appliance® of Sno-King, Wash., “Review your manufacturer’s manual for proper use and maintenance for your appliances.”

Follow these energy-efficiency tips periodically by marking these items on your kitchen calendar. Make sure to be responsible for the correct disposal of your appliances by contacting your local recycling plant to find out the rules in your area. Through the use of simple maintenance tasks, you can extend the life of your appliances, your bank account and, most importantly, our planet.