News Roundup - TopTenUSA Will Help You Save, and Energy Star Updates

TopTenUSA Will Help You Save

I just came across an interesting site called TopTenUSA. They focus on the top 10 most energy efficient products in a number of different product sets, ranging from electronics to appliances. For example, they have categories ranging from small TVs to large TVs, dishwashers to washing machines, and much more. While I'd love to see them expand, they cover the 'big ticket' items that make the most difference.

As I've talked about before, paying $100 or even $200 more for a more efficient TV or washing machine can pay for itself, possibly several times over, within the life of the product. So it makes a lot of sense to consult sites like TopTenUSA before making these purchases.

Energy Star Looking At Tiered Approach

The US Government's Energy Star program, by most accounts, has been a big success. It has brought awareness to energy efficiency, and the majority of consumers know what it is. However, some general flaws have been discovered and played up by some media.

As a partial response, Energy Star has posted a proposal for a tiered system, allowing for recognition of the 'super high efficient' products that reduce energy bills the most.

These top tier products would be labeled as "Top Performer", "Most Efficient" or similar.

This seems like a common sense approach to further raise visibility into energy efficiency.