5 tips to help you purchase energy efficient appliances for your home

Cutting down on energy consumption helps in reducing your monthly overhead expenses and is beneficial for the environment. Simple changes like running only full loads in the washing machine and unplugging appliances when they are not in use can have significant impacts. In addition, you also need to consider the types of appliances and electrical unit being used. For example, you cannot do without bulbs to light your home. The two main types of bulbs you can use are incandescent bulbs and CFL bulbs. The former uses much more power, and hence is avoidable. Similar, paying attention to the energy efficiency of other appliances can also lead to long-term energy savings. 

Here are five tips to help you choose energy efficient appliances.

Pick the right size

For appliances like air conditioners, size matters. If the unit is too small, it will have to be used for longer periods of time and thus will consume more energy than required. On the other hand, an oversized unit will need to be switched on and off more frequently than needed and thus cause efficiency issues. Thus, to maximize energy efficiency, choose appliances that are the right size and match your usage needs. One of the ways to conserve energy is to keep the filter clean. This can help lower your AC unit's energy consumption by 5% to 15%.

Check energy-saving settings

Appliances like dishwashers and washing machines often have energy saving settings. For example, a dishwasher may have an eco-wash setting that uses less water and electricity. Similarly, your washing machine settings may allow it to be used for a light wash. You should use cold water to wash clothes in the machine. It can reduce the energy usage by 8%. 

Read the energy guide label

When buying home appliances, look for the energy guide label. These stickers indicate the efficiency statistics for the appliance as well as the estimated operational costs and energy consumed. These stickers may also indicate the amount of money and energy you can save over the appliance’s lifetime.

Check design features

Design does not only impact the aesthetics of an appliance but also its functionality and energy consumption. For example, refrigerators with freezer units at the top or bottom are more energy efficient than those with freezers on the side. Features like ice dispensers may also increase the amount of energy consumed. One of the efficient ways to cut down energy consumption by allowing adequate air circulation inside the refrigerator. 

Prioritize

Energy efficient appliances may be more expensive as compared to others but this is a myopic view. When you are buying appliances, look at the long-term impact such as how much money you will save. Then, prioritize the appliances you need to invest in to maximize your savings. For example, you save more by replacing an old refrigerator than you could by replacing an old toaster.

Emerging technology plays a major role in improving energy efficiency for appliances. For example, air conditioners available in the market today are 20% more efficient than those sold a decade ago. Energy saving appliances may have a slightly higher price tag but remember, by cutting down on the power they consume, you will see savings in the long run. 

You can use Minion Energy Monitor to reduce energy consumption to a significant extent. This is a plug and play device that monitors energy consumption, detects appliances along with their real-time consumption, analyzes equipment downtime, and even predicts asset efficiency and energy costs.

Your purchase order (PO) process is absolutely necessary to your business operations. Why? Because electronic purchasing is quick, efficient and it can be monitored. Not having an efficient purchase order system can have delaying effects on the whole process. It’s like having a debt that is not repaid; it accumulates interest and the entire organization can be brought to a stand-still under the debt load that it has incurred.

Electronic purchasing can minimize mistakes in your administration with the time spent on the purchasing process. There are 3 things you probably don’t know about implementing an efficient purchase order system.

1. Processing orders quickly

If you process your orders quickly and efficiently it helps you build good relationships with your suppliers and they, in turn, give you good service which will ensure happy customers that will always come back to do business with you.

There are always negative consequences to not having efficient processes in place to be followed. Time management is most important.Being pressed for time when working on a project is a daily dilemma for everyone involved. With such a rigorous planning schedule to complete coupled with the day to day stresses that have to be dealt with once the project commences, there is hardly any time or even energy left to keep track of all the expenses and all the people that have to make purchases.

To enhance the productivity of your team you need to increase the efficiency of your processes.

“Suppliers and especially manufacturers have market power because they have information about a product or a service that the customer does not and cannot have, and does not need if he can trust the brand. This explains the profitability of brands.” – Peter Drucker, management consultant, educator, and author.

2. A good approval process ensures efficiency

Getting approvals for anything in a company can be very frustrating. In order to get a signature on a purchase order form you literally have to stalk the related executive or manager, whereafter it still has to go through more than one department before the purchase can finally be made.

In business, a bottleneck refers to a phenomenon where the performance or capacity of an entire system is limited by a single or small number of components or resources. It is best to choose 2 or 3 reliable people that know how your business processes work to approve purchase orders. This is important for two reasons. Firstly, it usually takes a long time for purchases to be approved and if there are too many people in the process there will likely be a lot of delays. Secondly, the faster a purchase can be approved the faster the project can be completed and the happier your customers are.

“You will launch many projects, but have time to finish only a few. So think, plan, develop, launch and tap good people to be responsible. Give them authority and hold them accountable. Trying to do too much yourself creates a bottleneck.” – Donald Rumsfeld, American retired politician and businessman.

Tweet This: Getting approvals for anything in a company can be very frustrating. In order to get a signature on a purchase order form you literally have to stalk the related executive or manager.

3. The importance of training

Make sure every employee has access to all the right information they need to raise a PO  efficiently. Train each administrator on your purchase order system to ensure the purchase order process is properly streamlined which eliminates time wasted on revision.

The training process moulds the thinking of your administrators and leads to a higher standard of performance. Employees will become more efficient and productive with the right guidance.

A  good manager ensures that a culture of good guidance and discipline is established in the company.  Safeguard good communication in the beginning with purpose and examine your objectives with each administrator beforehand.

“The five steps in teaching an employee new skills are preparation, explanation, showing, observation, and supervision.” Bruce Barton, American author, advertising executive, and politician.

Why Procurementexpress.com is your ultimate smart spend toolkit

Procurementexpress.com has an efficient 1-click approval process and the approval rules can be customized according to your needs. All the steps of the process are recorded and budgets are set beforehand and can be viewed at any time. You never have to wonder what has been spent on what and by whom. Reports are updated in real time and can be download whenever needed. Custom fields can be set up so you can report on what’s important to your company.

Procurementexpress.com is also a user-friendly Purchase Order platform. It helps your business keep track of expenses and maintains a chain of approval. Additionally, their support staff is extremely responsive and helpful.

The prevention of transition problems in your processes will ensure that every project runs smoothly and you can have the peace of mind you need at the end of your day.

Want help on making your purchase order process efficient? Sign up for a free trial of Procurementexpress.com today!