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Going Green in the Kitchen: The Difference Energy-Efficient Home Appliances Make
Home appliances these days have come a long way especially in terms of energy efficiency. Thanks to the federal government’s Energy Star program, it is now easier for consumers to identify which appliances are eco-friendly. So when shopping for new appliances, just look for the easily visible yellow Energy Star label, and there you will see the energy rating of the item in question. The energy rating will tell you if the product you are considering is up to 10 to 15 percent more energy efficient compared to traditional options. The Energy Guide also compares the products’ operating costs with models similar to it, thus providing consumers with much-needed details that can help them make an informed decision.
Home appliances account for 20 percent of a household’s energy consumption, which means the use of energy-efficient machines translates to major savings for the home every year. Here’s an update on how the energy-efficient versions of the most common appliances used in the home are helping consumers.
1. Refrigerators and Freezers
Green models of fridges and freezers are 15% more efficient than traditional models. The energy savings come from the use of more effective insulating materials that do not require as much energy to keep food cool. These also use highly efficient compressors and more precise temperature controls.
http://www.domayneonline.com.au/electronics/home-appliances/fridges.html
To save as much money as possible, however, make sure you buy the right size of fridge for your needs. If a fridge is too large and it is usually only half-filled, you won’t be saving money after all. And if you don’t really need an automatic ice dispenser, make do without one, since an ice dispenser will use 20% additional energy. Also, if you opt for a side-by-side fridge, even the most energy-efficient unit will still use a lot of energy, so unless there’s a specific reason to get such a unit, better choose a top-freezer model instead.
2. Washing Machines and Dryers
Clothes washers certified by the Energy Star program uses up to 35 percent less water and 25 percent less energy than non-Energy Star models. This is equivalent to 700 kWh of electricity and 27,000 gallons of water over the course of its lifetime. Washing machines with high energy ratings achieve more savings by using less detergent and power to clean clothes. They also tend to extract more water from clothes after the spin cycle, which means you also save in terms of drying.
Dryers, however, don’t come in Energy Star versions, since most of them use the same amount of energy. In order to save money, you just need to decide whether to get a gas dryer or an electric dryer. Gas dryers are more expensive to buy, but are cheaper to operate.
3. Dishwashers
A lot of dishwashers are now labeled with the Energy Star seal. On average, these green models uses 10 percent less energy and 20 percent less water than standard models. Green dishwashers make use of special smart sensors that keep the cycle length and water temperature under control as well as more efficient motors to clean the dishes faster and with less water wastage.
Green dishwashers offer the biggest savings when it comes to green home appliances, considering how the average household uses it for an average of 200 times every year.
Historic Peavy House finds a new home – Corvallis Gazette-Times
It took only two dollars and a dime for brothers Frank and Mario Crotti to acquire the historic Peavy House — $ 2.10 for its 210 N.W. 26th St. address.
But the brothers spent an estimated $ 70,000 to move the two-story dwelling to a new location on Sunday.
Starting in the early morning, movers worked about nine hours to cart the 101-year-old, craftsman-style bungalow less than a half-mile to its new site at 112 N.W 30th St. To make clearance for house with a footprint of 35-by-52 feet, workers took down utility lines and road signs and trimmed back trees.
The movers backed up a trailer with three sets of hydraulic wheels in triangular formation underneath the jacked-up house Sunday at 6 a.m. Parts of the house that had posed a threat of collapsing, such as the front porch, had been braced by 2-by-4 boards.
The structure made it down the curb without incident and then slowly turned south on Northwest 25th Street. As the truck inched along pulling a house behind it, a few children watched from nearby trees and other onlookers stood on the street and adjacent sidewalks.
“Oh my gosh, isn’t that just bizarre?” John Corden asked with a chuckle as he looked up at the house in the middle of the street.
Corden, with his brother and their wives, bought the Peavy House property in September with intentions of building townhouses on the site. He knew the historic significance of the house whose original owner headed the forestry department in 1920 and who in 1934 was named president of what was then Oregon State College.
In fact, Corden’s mother was, at one time, a personal nurse to George Wilcox Peavy.
“When we bought the property, we knew about Peavy and we did want to make sure the house went somewhere and didn’t get knocked down,” he said. “We had thought about different places it could go, including there was a property on 21st where a house had burned. When Frank called, it was just really good timing because we were in that process.”
With precision, workers from Chris Schoap Building Movers used the hydraulic lifts Sunday morning to shift the house so that it could clear a power pole with only inches to spare. It wasn’t long, though, before the eaves caught some tree branches. Pacific Power employees, who were on standby, entered with a cherry-picker and a chainsaw.
Frank Crotti circled the house nervously each time it became obstructed.
“It’s very nerve-racking and we hope that from this point on there are less obstacles and a smoother ride,” he said.
The house crossed Northwest Monroe Avenue — with more tree trimming needed — and then turned west on Oregon State University campus, moving through parking lots along Southwest Park Terrace Place and continuing on Northwest Orchard Avenue.
Workers cut part of an eave ever-so-slightly when the house had to squeeze between a tree and a power pole near Northwest 27th Street and Orchard Avenue.
“It’s been a real effort to get this thing in place,” Frank Crotti said at 3 in the afternoon as the house was being positioned to set down on its new lot. “It was a challenging move, but all-in-all it went well.”
Many people were behind the success, Crotti said, but timing also had something to do with it. Crotti and his brother purchased the Northwest 30th Street property in January. A month or two later, Crotti heard that the Peavy House, less than a half-mile away, needed a new location. He got into contact with Corden in the early spring and they began to make plans.
“Everything just kind of clicked,” Crotti said. “It seemed to all happen at one time.”
The house will sit on timber cribbing and long steel I-beams until a foundation can be built with pockets to slip the beams out.
The Crotti brothers plan to restore and convert the Peavy House from a duplex back to its original state as a single-family dwelling. The house now sits in the College Hill West Historic District, a status that Crotti says will ensure the house is preserved for years to come.
Historic Corvallis house gets trucked to new home – San Francisco Gate
CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) — It took only two dollars and a dime for brothers Frank and Mario Crotti to acquire the historic Peavy House — $ 2.10 for its 210 N.W. 26th St. address.
But the brothers spent an estimated $ 70,000 to move the two-story dwelling to a new location on a recent Sunday.
Starting in the early morning, movers worked about nine hours to cart the 101-year-old, craftsman-style bungalow less than a half-mile to its new site at 112 N.W 30th St. To make clearance for house with a footprint of 35-by-52 feet, workers took down utility lines and road signs and trimmed back trees.
The movers backed up a trailer with three sets of hydraulic wheels in triangular formation underneath the jacked-up house Sunday at 6 a.m. Parts of the house that had posed a threat of collapsing, such as the front porch, had been braced by 2-by-4 boards.
The structure made it down the curb without incident and then slowly turned south on Northwest 25th Street. As the truck inched along pulling a house behind it, a few children watched from nearby trees and other onlookers stood on the street and adjacent sidewalks.
“Oh my gosh, isn’t that just bizarre?” John Corden asked with a chuckle as he looked up at the house in the middle of the street.
Corden, with his brother and their wives, bought the Peavy House property in September with intentions of building townhouses on the site. He knew the historic significance of the house whose original owner headed the forestry department in 1920 and who in 1934 was named president of what was then Oregon State College.
In fact, Corden’s mother was, at one time, a personal nurse to George Wilcox Peavy.
“When we bought the property, we knew about Peavy and we did want to make sure the house went somewhere and didn’t get knocked down,” he said. “We had thought about different places it could go, including there was a property on 21st where a house had burned. When Frank called, it was just really good timing because we were in that process.”
With precision, workers from Chris Schoap Building Movers used the hydraulic lifts Sunday morning to shift the house so that it could clear a power pole with only inches to spare. It wasn’t long, though, before the eaves caught some tree branches. Pacific Power employees, who were on standby, entered with a cherry-picker and a chainsaw.
Frank Crotti circled the house nervously each time it became obstructed.
“It’s very nerve-racking and we hope that from this point on there are less obstacles and a smoother ride,” he said.
The house crossed Northwest Monroe Avenue — with more tree trimming needed — and then turned west on Oregon State University campus, moving through parking lots along Southwest Park Terrace Place and continuing on Northwest Orchard Avenue.
Workers cut part of an eave ever-so-slightly when the house had to squeeze between a tree and a power pole near Northwest 27th Street and Orchard Avenue.
“It’s been a real effort to get this thing in place,” Frank Crotti said at 3 in the afternoon as the house was being positioned to set down on its new lot. “It was a challenging move, but all-in-all it went well.”
Many people were behind the success, Crotti said, but timing also had something to do with it. Crotti and his brother purchased the Northwest 30th Street property in January. A month or two later, Crotti heard that the Peavy House, less than a half-mile away, needed a new location. He got into contact with Corden in the early spring and they began to make plans.
“Everything just kind of clicked,” Crotti said. “It seemed to all happen at one time.”
The house will sit on timber cribbing and long steel I-beams until a foundation can be built with pockets to slip the beams out.
The Crotti brothers plan to restore and convert the Peavy House from a duplex back to its original state as a single-family dwelling. The house now sits in the College Hill West Historic District, a status that Crotti says will ensure the house is preserved for years to come.
1997 Ford Mustang – ksl.com
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State OKs doubling carbon monoxide emissions at Old Town pulp mill – Bangor Daily News
AUGUSTA, Maine — The pulp mill in Old Town, whic has received millions of dollars in federal and state aid, has tentatively won its battle to double its allowed emissions of an air pollutant rather than fix or replace its aging boiler.
The state Department of Environmental Protection announced on July 14 it will grant most of the Old Town Fuel and Fiber pulp mill’s request to increase its permitted carbon monoxide emissions. The mill asked to increase from 407 tons per year to 1,045; the state approved a 929-ton maximum. Average permitted daily emissions also would be allowed to increase.
The decision is not final, however. There is a period for public comment and after that, even if the head of the state DEP, Patricia Aho, gives final approval, the decision can be appealed to the Board of Environmental Protection, a citizen panel that oversees the department’s work.
Some environmental activists in the Old Town area are skeptical about the DEP decision. Ed Spencer, an Old Town logger, said he probably will ask the Board of Environmental Protection to consider the issue and hold a public hearing.
In January, the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting described how the mill for years had exceeded pollution limits, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties to the DEP and the federal Environmental Protection Agency. At the same time, the federal and state governments have given the mill tens of millions of dollars to support its operations.
DEP is still negotiating with the mill over a $ 497,000 pollution fine the department proposed last year, although that number is just a starting point for talks.
A practical effect of the new emissions ceilings would be to eliminate future fines for the mill because it could now legally produce what had been excess emissions.
Melanie Loyzim, the DEP air quality bureau director, wrote in an email that the mill’s emissions are “far less than levels that would cause a harmful concentration of carbon monoxide in the air.”
Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, poisonous gas that can be harmful to people with heart disease.
Loyzim said that the department’s computer modeling shows the pollution will be dispersed well enough so as not to violate the EPA’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
The Board of Environmental Protection would take jurisdiction only if, among other factors, the proposal affects a large geographic area, involves a natural resource of statewide significance, or there is conflicting technical information on whether the air-quality licensing standards would be met by the change proposed, according to Marc Cone, the air quality bureau’s licensing and compliance chief.
The deadline for opponents of the emissions hike to request a hearing by the board is August 3.
The public can also request a DEP informational public meeting if the request is made before July 30. The DEP already has tentatively scheduled one for 7 p.m. Aug. 14 at the Black Bear Inn in Orono. The deadline for the DEP to receive written comments is Aug. 13.
Old Town Fuel and Fiber — also called Red Shield — has made investments this year in upgrading the boiler, Loyzim said.
In late 2008, the mill was bought at auction for $ 19 million by Patriarch Partners, an $ 8 billion private-equity conglomerate. The facility was renamed Old Town Fuel and Fiber. In addition to producing pulp, the mill is experimenting with making butanol, a fuel, from pulp.
The carbon-monoxide increase would be allowed only until the end of 2015, when more stringent federal pollution limits are expected to go into effect. In its written decision — technically a draft air-emission-license amendment — the DEP says the mill would then have to reduce its carbon-monoxide releases to 523 tons per year, close to its present limit.
Another mill pollutant, sulfur dioxide, also will be allowed to increase, from 97 to 111 tons per year. The emissions all come from the mill’s 1980s-era biomass boiler, which has long been troublesome.
During the three-plus years the mill will be allowed to increase its pollution, the mill will have the opportunity “to continue to fine-tune the unit,” including having experts examine the boiler, according to the DEP.
The mill general manager, Michael Footer, said he could not respond to questions about the DEP decision without first getting “clearance” from other company officials, but this was not forthcoming before deadline.
Environmental groups are not up in arms over the proposed boost in the mill’s pollution. Both the Natural Resources Council of Maine and the Clean Air Task Force said they are not working on the issue.
“We’re completely swamped with other stuff,” said Nick Bennett, the NRCM’s staff scientist.
Jake Ward, assistant vice president at the University of Maine in nearby Orono, expressed confidence that regulators would suitably deal with the mill’s pollution.
The university has continued to build its partnership with Old Town Fuel and Fiber, in June opening a technology research center on rent-free mill grounds. The 40,000-square-foot facility will develop fuels distilled from wood, in collaboration with private industry.
The university’s partnership with a mill that continually has exceeded pollution limits is irksome to Paul Schroeder, an Orono resident.
“The university should be running a cleaner ship,” he said.
Ward responded, “I’m not sure there’s anything we can do” to influence the mill’s operations.
The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting is a nonprofit and nonpartisan journalism organization that provides in-depth reporting as a public service to its Maine media partners. The email address is mainecenter@gmail.com. The website is pinetreewatchdog.org.
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