Should you buy energy-efficient appliances sooner or later?
Bankrate, October 18, 2015. Image credit: Chris Smith
A new refrigerator, dishwasher, clothes washer, clothes dryer, water heater or other appliance is a major expense. Models that use less energy should cost less to operate than comparable models that aren’t energy-efficient.
Tie together the upfront and operating costs, and you get a conundrum: Do energy-efficient appliances save enough over time to recoup the purchase price?
With payback periods more often measured in years than months, homeowners need to do some research rather than assume the savings will or won’t be significant.
That suggests it’s probably not sensible to buy new appliances just to capture the energy savings, especially if you haven’t yet invested in air-sealing and insulation.