How to Maintain Appliances to Conserve Energy

Most people would be surprised to learn how much money they're throwing away on their energy bills each month. There are simple steps anyone can take to maintain their appliances in the most energy efficient manner. While the majority of energy is wasted through the refrigerator, there are other appliances you can tame to conserve energy throughout the house.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Maintain Your Refrigerator to Conserve Energy

1. Set your refrigerator's internal thermostat to a lower level. Most conservation experts would recommend you keep your refrigerator between 37 and 40 degrees F. An attached freezer should be set to 5 degrees F.

2. Cover all foods and liquids in your refrigerator. Uncovered food products will release moisture into the air, forcing your refrigerator's compressor to work harder than it would otherwise. Not only will this run up your energy bill, but it may also put unnecessary strain on the machinery.

3. Maintain your refrigerator's condenser coils by cleaning them regularly. You'll have to move your refrigerator away from the wall, so you can reach behind it with a vacuum cleaner. Most experts would agree that you should clean your condenser coils at least every 3 months.

Conserve Energy With Other Appliances

4. Put dirty dishes directly into your dishwasher and skip any pre-rinsing in your sink. A dishwashing machine uses an average of 6 gallons of water less than you'd use hand-wishing dishes in a sink.

5. Keep a lookout for yellow flames on any gas appliances. Yellow flames can be an indication of improprieties in the gas distribution. A healthy blue flame will be a good indication that your gas appliances are running smoothly and efficiently.

6. Shut off your stove burners a couple of minutes before the recipe calls for it. There will usually be enough residual heat in the stove's elements to finish the cooking time while saving a little extra energy on the side.

7. Cook small meals in toaster ovens or microwaves instead of an oven. It takes a lot of energy to heat the space in your oven, so unless you're cooking something as large as a turkey or a ham, all that energy is going to waste.

8. Reduce the heat in your laundry-machine cycle. The vast majority of energy spent by a laundry machine is for heating water. By decreasing the settings from "hot" to "warm," you can cut the energy expenditure in half.

Tips & Warnings

• Look to your large appliances first. Appliances account for about 20 percent of household energy consumption, with refrigerators and laundry appliances at the top of the use list.