Manufacturers and government agencies are trying to persuade consumers to get rid of their age old appliances and go for energy-efficient counterparts. To achieve more sales of their new appliances companies are leaving no stone unturned and have changed the look of all their energy-efficient appliances so as to make people think about them. The only question that remains to be answered is whether consumers really get their work done easily and in a much better way than they were used to. Well, according to some, these appliances are energy-efficient but not work-efficient. Jeanine Van Voorhees spent a thousand dollars to buy a new energy-saving washer only to find that the machine was not able to clean clothes and she had to wash her load two times taking the net energy savings to zero. According to Wall Street Journal, many customers have stated that their appliances don’t live up to their expectations or to the market hype either. The article also states that many times the fault is not of the machine but the person who is using it. They try to use these machines the same way they used to handle earlier machines. Many customers have to change the way they use these new machines so that they can work according to expectations. In case of a washing machine claim, users should go for high-efficiency soap. Some energy-saving advocates also state that users should first focus on the appliances that eat more energy such as an air conditioning unit or a refrigerator. Only after these appliances are taken care of then only the users should opt to change other appliances. This way they will be able to gain more by going energy-efficient. Via: Grist
