March 2008
In this Issue
Is a Concept Home in Your Future?
Home Lighting and Appliance Efficiencies
Subprime Mortgage Woes May Spur Changes in AHS Data
Measuring Overcrowding in Housing
In the next issue of ResearchWorks
Home Lighting and Appliance Efficiencies
The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, signed into law in December 2007, contains provisions designed to cut energy consumption in the United States. Initiatives inspired by this legislation will benefit from the work that the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) has done to identify lighting and appliance technologies that conserve energy, thus reducing utility costs and energy consumption.
PATH-Identified Efficient Lighting
Lighting a home with traditional incandescent bulbs is costly in terms of both environmental impact and consumer expense. PATH recommends two energy-efficient alternatives: compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The CFL is an established technology that uses 50 to 80 percent less energy than an incandescent bulb and lasts up to 10 times longer. According to PATH’s Top 10 Ways to Make Your Home Green, replacing a home’s five most frequently used incandescent light bulbs with ENERGY STAR®-rated CFLs will save $100 annually. LEDs, an emerging alternative to incandescent bulbs, provide more light per watt than traditional bulbs. Although LEDs have higher initial costs ($25 to $60 for bulbs retrofitted for traditional night lights and small lamps), they last markedly longer than both incandescent and fluorescent bulbs.
Both PATH-identified alternative lighting options use significantly less energy — a key provision of the new legislation, which phases out most incandescent light bulbs by 2014. The Alliance to Save Energy (ASE) explains that this phase-out will decrease energy use from light bulbs by at least 60 percent by 2020 and yield $13 billion per year in consumer savings. ASE expects the energy savings from this measure to exceed 140 billion kilowatt hours annually — more than was consumed by all the homes in Texas in 2006.1
PATH-Identified Appliance Efficiencies
In addition to addressing lighting efficiencies, the new energy legislation also aims to reduce energy consumption and utility expenditures by updating energy standards and setting water efficiency standards for home appliances. ASE expects that these provisions will comprise 20 percent of the overall savings from the legislation.
To promote energy efficiency in homes, PATH encourages homeowners to purchase household appliances rated by ENERGY STAR. Like the energy-efficient lighting alternatives, these appliances have higher initial costs, but they substantially reduce operating costs over time, making them economically viable. A new ENERGY STAR-rated clothes washer, for example, saves 140 kilowatt hours per year — a savings of 56 percent over a new, nonqualified washer. Similarly, a new dishwasher rated by ENERGY STAR uses 24 percent less energy than its unrated counterpart.2
PATH also identifies specific types of household appliances that conserve energy. For example, PATH includes three energy-efficient laundry appliance options in its Technology Inventory — the horizontal-axis washer/dryer combo, horizontal-axis washer, and vertical-axis washer — all of which use 30 to 50 percent less water than traditional clothes washers. A field evaluation of 103 clothes washers in Bern, Kansas (www.toolbase.org/PDF/CaseStudies/ bernwasherstudy.pdf) shows that having to heat less water yields significant energy savings. In the study, the horizontal-axis (front-loading) washers used 38 percent less water and 56 percent less energy than traditional washers.
Other energy-saving household appliances identified by PATH are the induction cooktop and high-efficiency refrigerator. According to the Technology Inventory, an induction cooktop is 90 percent efficient, meaning that only 10 percent of the heat produced is lost; i.e., not used to warm the pot. In comparison, gas and electric cooktops are approximately 55 and 60 percent efficient, respectively. The induction cooktop’s increased efficiency and shorter cooking times make it a good energy-saving alternative to traditional cooktops. Similarly, PATH explains that a homeowner who replaces a 10-year old refrigerator with a high-efficiency model, which can use as little as 450 kilowatt hours annually, will save $100 per year in energy costs (at 8.4 cents per kilowatt hour). In a field study by Asdal Builders in Henderson, Nevada (www.toolbase.org/Field-Evaluations/Asdal-Builders), a home was retrofitted throughout with energy-efficient features, including a new high-efficiency refrigerator. Although the new refrigerator is larger than the old one, it consumes 368 fewer kilowatt hours eac
h year.
PATH also identifies the geothermal heat pump as an energy-efficient technology. This ground-source heat pump uses the natural heat storage capacity of the earth or water to heat and cool a home. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, it costs 30 to 70 percent less to heat a home with a geothermal heat pump than with a conventional system. A geothermal heat pump will also reduce homeowners' cooling costs by 20 to 50 percent.
Adopting these technologies will reduce energy use and help American homeowners embrace the new energy-efficiency standards for lighting and appliances. Information on the energy-saving technologies discussed above is available through PATH's Technology Inventory at www.toolbase.org/TechInventory/ViewAll.aspx. PATH’s Top 10 Ways to Make Your Home Green is available at www.pathnet.org/sp.asp?id=18438. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 can be read in full at http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:h6enr.txt.pdf.
1. "HR 6 Summary of Efficiency Provisions," Alliance to Save Energy. See www.ase.org/content/article/detail/4155.
2. "28th Annual Portrait of the U.S. Appliance Industry," Appliance Magazine; cited in Partnerships for Home Energy, 2006 Annual Report, p. 6, www.energystar.gov/ia/news/downloads/PHEE2006AnnualReport.pdf.
