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Land of the free, home of the inefficient: appliance standards as culture war target (www.npr.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

18 comments fedilink hide all child comments

From ceiling fans to refrigerators, the Department of Energy is updating appliance efficiency standards that would affect millions of consumers.

The Biden administration's goal is to reduce climate-warming greenhouse gasses and save Americans billions of dollars a year in utility costs. But the administration is facing pushback from the natural gas industry, because some new standards would affect gas appliances. Conservative politicians and media have taken notice of the measures, too, and they've now made unsexy, technical appliance standards a flashpoint in the country's culture war.

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[+] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

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[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Consumers opposing these standards are basically arguing for their own exploitation by utility and gas companies.

Not necessarily. The modern washing machines, dryers, and dishwashers that I've used are really slow. They take several times longer than what I'm accustomed to. I don't think the money saved on electricity and water justifies that much extra time, especially since the cost of running these appliances was already relatively low. It's bad enough IMO that if I were getting these appliances, I would prefer used, older ones to new ones.

[+] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Note that this isn't a small increase - the new machines take two or three times as long to run as the old ones do. I suppose it won't be an issue for you if you always do these chores in advance, but I often end up doing more than one load of laundry or running the dishwasher because I need clean dishes right away.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I don't think I've seen those huge increases except on appliances with greatly increased capacity as compared with the old ones. I don't think it's a big deal either; you set up a washing machine or a dishwasher, and then you go do something else. Almost nobody sits around babysitting their washing machine or dishwasher.

I'll also note that the appliances also have a 'speed' cycle which runs fast for those rare occasions when you need it.