Daily Home Renovation Tips

From time to time Daily Home Renovation Tips brings to your attention a new addition to our blog roll.

Today we introduce the web site for ENERGY STAR.

I have to admit that I, like at least a few of you (come on, you know who you are ), never gave it a second thought about who is responsible for ENERGY STAR standards or who is behind the ENERGY STAR accreditation for products.

All I really knew was that if a product had the ENERGY STAR label it had to be at least among the more energy efficient products for that product group.

Did you know that ENERGY STAR is a joint effort of both the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the United States Department of Energy (DOE)? I didn’t.

Per the ENERGY STAR web site, what started out in 1992 by the EPA as an effort to identify and promote energy-efficient products to reduce greenhouse gas emissions initially focusing on computers and monitors, has grown to cover ” …major appliances, office equipment, lighting, home electronics, and more. EPA has also extended the [ENERGY STAR] label to cover new homes and commercial and industrial buildings. ”

The web site has much to offer the home owner (and non-home owner). Of the 5 different main sections, two which piqued my curiosity were those on “Products” and “Home Improvement”.

As one would think, the Products area includes the vast array of product categories from appliances and heating & cooling products to home electronics, lighting and more. What was very nice to see was that these sub-sections did not just list ENERGY STAR qualified products. In addition, it also provided useful information (more in some product categories than others).

For example, the DVD Products sub-category page includes a section on other DVD features which consumers may wish to take into consideration when purchasing a new DVD player, in addition of course to energy efficiency represented by the ENERGY STAR label.

In the Home Improvement area of the web site, there was a nice page on air sealing and insulation  which reminds us that a knowledgeable homeowner or a skilled contractor can reduce air leaks in a house with proper sealing and insulation, and thus can reduce a home’s heating and cooling costs by up to 20% (or up to 10% of the home’s total annual energy bill).

In the same Home Improvement area, there was another page on Common Home Problems dealing with mold, mildew or musty odors and actions one should take for different leak situations (a situation dear to our heart with our bathroom shower stall leak issue which we are currently writing about) as well as how to reduce indoor humidity which, if excessive, can contribute to mold growth in the home.

All in all, a very useful web site. If you want to see if a certain product is ENERGY STAR qualified, go ahead and search for it on the web site in the related product category.

The ENERGY STAR web site has much useful information for the homeowner and home renovator alike that will be well worth your while to add to your favorite places on the Internet and visit from time to time. There are a lot of places to obtain information out on the world wide web, some with accurate information and some with, let’s just say not as accurate information . The ENERGY STAR site is one of those places that you can trust.