On Sun, 21 Dec 2003 09:16:09 -0800, someone wrote:


Our first home!!! :-)

My wife and I will be moving into our first home in early February. I
want to make the home a very economically functioning unit. ...

Congrats on your 1st house.

You may be unrealistic in how far you can really go with energy
savings on merely selecting a refrigerator and DW, *if* you plan to
live conventionally. The difference each month would be less than the
cost of one dinner out.

To save more, hand wash your dishes in cold water, and don't buy a
frost-free refrigerator (if you can even find a full sized one). But
most people in the US want convenience and (in the case of the DW) are
obsessed with sterilization, so they use energy.

There are large differences between the best and worst appliances, but
the energy difference between average and better than average probably
isn't that much.

-v.