The Year in Green

I read all types of energy awareness literature almost daily. It is encouraging to watch the country slowly becoming aware of conservation. The simple truth is by buying green from EnergyStar washers to compact fluorescent bulbs you will save money and help the environment at the same time.


Consider a couple of simple factoids:

Recycling 1 can will produce enough energy to light a bulb for 20 hours

Just 1 ton of recycled paper will save 17 trees and 7,000 gallons of water..


At Yale alone, we have sold 3,141 number of front load washers, instead of the more conventional washers in 2007


Assuming 7 loads a week, the environmental savings are:

25 gallons per wash x 7 x 3141 = 549,675 gallons saved per year


210 kilowatts saved per machine per year x 3141= 659,610 kilowatts saved


We could add another 40% savings because EnergyStar washers are much larger. Yale is just one store...Imagine how much we could all save by deciding in the new year to be more conservation minded?

Everyone wins....My final thought for 2007


Happy New Year

LG French Door

First a quick review: Refrigerators and appliances in general are manufactured to fit cabinet sizes. The most common cabinet sizes are 30, 33 and 36 inches. Refrigerators are typically 29.5, 32.5 and 35.75 inches to fit into the respective cabinets.

French doors, as we described in previous posts, have a side by side top and a bottom freezer. When the french door was first introduced, it was exclusively 33 and 36 inches, LG has started manufacturing a 30 inch...

Have a look:

Random Thoughts

The ball dropped on New Years eve in New York will be LED for the very first time. Just another sign of the times.

I am not an endorser of products by nature, but if you want to check an interesting blog...Look at Bostondesignblog.com, its an eclectic mix of stylish products.

I have to ask this question: What is the average life of a major appliance?


BTW, If anyone has a suggestion, I will be writing 2 weeks of blogs in the next 3 days

Bottom Freezer

Lets look at two popular refrigerators, Amana and Maytag...What are the differences?












Actually, it is the same refrigerator. Well almost the same, Maytag has a factory installed icemaker and is $150 higher. I could post 30 similar entries of the same product with different labels. A smart consumer can save some serious money by buying the less expensive label

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays from The Yale Blog Team

The Two Best Gas Slide Ins

GE started manufacturing their Cafe line about 6 months ago. As I wrote a few months ago, Cafe is a premium line designed to compete with JennAir and Kitchen, but how competitive is is?


First, our most popular slidein The JennAir JGS8860:

16,000 BTU burner
Convection oven
Warming drawer






The Cafe actually has better specifications:

18,000 BTU burner
Griddle burner
Second oven





Before you buy the GE Cafe, JennAir has a more competitive line of refrigeration and dishwashers.

Energy Tip of The Day

Hard to believe that the year is almost over. The ole Yale blog will be closing next week as I head to an island for a little R&R. 305 entries this year. Hard to believe.

Lets end the year strong with an energy tip so obvious, you can start today.


The majority of energy expended for a dishwasher is in heating the water and the element for the dry cycle.

A couple of simple tips to save energy:

A. Do not use a pot and pan cycle unless it is necessary. Cycles really control time and temperature. A normal wash cycle is usually sufficient with less energy consumed

B. Shut off the heated dry cycle and use a rinse aid like Jetdry or Miele(shown below)...(as a side note European dishwashers are more efficient because they have no heated dry cycle)






Simple, easy tips guaranteed to save you money

Your New Bulbs(In About 2-5 Years)

Have a peek at these flood bulbs....They fit a normal socket. Instead of 50-60 watt, these LED bulbs use only 2-3 watt for the same lumen equivalent. The light is still bluish and not ready for normal residential application.....Not yet.

The New Energy Bill

Finally, a comprehensive bill was signed into legislation. The appliance and lighting industry will probably be the most affected. Light bulbs will have to be 70% more efficient according to the new laws, so incandescent bulbs will be ushered into retirement. Then again, the technology is over 200 years old.

By the year 2030, we will save 4 million barrels of oil per day or roughly twice our current consumption from the Middle East.

We can certainly improve, but it is a step in the right direction


Have a read:


http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/12/19/higher_auto_mileage_standards_coming/

The Foreign Laundry Invasion

On Mondays post about lighting, we discussed the Chinese outsourcing influence on the lighting industry. Chinese manufacturing probably accounts for 90% of the lighting products. Although low cost product has tamed inflation and cost of living to some degree, it is disconcerting not to control production.


But what about appliances? Which company outsources their laundry to China?


Is it the ever popular Whirlpool Duet






The highly rated Bosch?






Or the new feature packed GE?






The answer is GE, which markets the first decent Chinese appliances. In the future as more product is sourced, consumers should see better quality and lower prices.

Interestingly enough, the German company, Bosch, manufactures in the US while the American company, Whirlpool, produces the Duet in Germany

Is Service Really Important?

I had to buy an ice scraper today, which is an overdue purchase on so many levels. Naturally, I could not help but walk into the appliance section of this store. The salesman sold the customer a $1100 refrigerator and a $69 service plan.

Personally, I find it awkward to sell service without an actual service department, but this was never mentioned during the sale. The customer never even inquired.

This begs the question and this weeks poll. Just how important is a service department in the appliance business? I do listen to comments and watch the polls.
FYI, the store offers in January will reflect your answers to last weeks question.

This should be interesting

Nice looking Lights?

I have never been a fan of "heavy looking" lighting. To me, it belongs in a Spanish monatery or in the Addams family(loved Fred Gwynn and Raul Julia as Gomez. Although I think outsourcing manufacturing will one day haunt this country, one benefit is low costs.



Lighting in general is less expensive than it was 20 years ago, because of Chinese manufacturing....Of course, you still have to like the products


What do you think?

LED Undercounter Lighting

Two ordinary pictures of some undercounter lighting. One is LED.


Can you guess which one











Unlike regular incandescent/ halogen lighting, LED emits zero heat and uses only .6 watts per socket for similar effects to a 10 watt halogen...


BTW, its the one on the left in the first picture. The system will be available January 1, 2008

More Detergents

I have been working full time at Yale for 22 years. Over the years products have certainly evolved: dishwashers are quieter, stove burners are hotter and refrigerators are 3 times more efficient than when I started.

However, The best changes are laundry. The new washers are almost twice bigger use less than 1/3 the water and 1/2 the water....You can do more laundry by doing less laundry with much less of everything else.

As we discussed last week, front loaders require high efficiency detergents(HE)...

Following are other products that may be of use:

Perwoll Black Magic: This is good for black and darker colors as it prohibits graying





Vernel Fabric softener: Front loaders spin at 1000-1600 RPM or 2 to 4 times of a conventional washer. Add a little of Vernel to prevent wrinkling. Available in peach&lemon or the much vaunted Day at The Sea




Perwoll: for wools and other heavier fabrics



Persil hypoallergetic: For sensitive skin



Send me an email and I would be happy to send a sample. Yes, you can buy this at fine retailers almost everywhere

Next Week

Hopefully everyones commute wasn't that bad. My travel time was 2 hours last night for a normal 7 minute commute. Most Bostonians will want to strangle me about my occasional global warming rants after yesterday....BUT

According to the Wall Street Journal, Carbon Dioxide levels are at the highest in 650,000 years. We will explore some more LED next week as this is the bulb of the near(energy efficient) future. In an earlier post, we looked at recessed housings. Next week, we will look at undercounter lighting, which will use about 1/20 of the power with the same lumen output.

We will look at lights, electric ranges, more LED, Sears and more LED.

Until then...Have a nice weekend,


Steve

What NOT To Buy

It seems like I am endorsing everything lately except for bottled water.....Now we will talk about the netherworld of appliances aka...What not to buy




Silver mist, clean steel or any other stainless looking products....First it should be called grey and it is not that much cheaper than stainless. Truly aesthetically challenged product







Any high end non energystar top loading washer: Imagine someone knocking on your door and asking you for $250 per year every year. Buying a top load instead of a front load is pretty much that simple.







Any expensive non self cleaning product: Fine,maybe you don't use the self cleaning option, but the non self cleaning units have the broiler below instead of storage drawer









These really bad products are advertised every week in circulars from some pretty well known companies.

KitchenAid Vs Bosch

With all due respect to the folks at Miele who manufacture undeniably a superior product, most dishwasher purchases under $1,000 seem to be between KitchenAid and Bosch

BTW, I am no way supporting these brands or any other brands on this blog. Its a more than casual observation. Personally, more people should look at JennAir, Miele or Maytag as well

So lets deal with the current reality:


KitchenAid: Your folks probably owned one in their home, and your family couldn"t beat it to death. KitchenAid has a commercial pedigree as it once was owned by Hobart. Of course it was purchased by Whirlpool almost 20 years. It still is a great machine with an evisserator(you read that right) at the bottom, which will grind small bones etc left on plates and tons of options even on the basic models.







Bosch: Bosch successfully rolled into the US about 15 years ago. They were the first with a stainless rather than a plastic tank and a heat boost for water to 161 degrees for cleanability. Consumers, however, purchased Bosch, because it was incredibly quiet.







Now how do you compare? Kitchen has more features, the dreaded evisserator(Bosch uses a filter) and on their better models a very useful 16 position upper rack. Bosch is a bit quieter and heats the water 10 degrees hotter.

New Website

Our website is pretty average at best. We are launching a new one next week with improved navigation as well as blog and podcast integration. If you want to look at the beta site, simply cut and paste the link below


http://www.yaleappliance.com/dev/index.php

Gas Ranges Again

I was once in Tulsa for the grand opening of the new Whirlpool range plant. Tulsa is perhaps the quietest city in America, but there is real value to not having rush hour traffic ever.

Anyhow, you watch the ranges being built on the line. Almost immediately you understand the laws of production, which is the standardization of almost everything. On a range the cabinets, oven elements and backguards are identical.


Hence the subject of this post...What are we buying with a more expensive product?


To simplify, lets look at a basic versus the very best Frigidaire range.


The Plgfmz98 (great range)

European Convection
Double oven
5 burner
16,ooo BTU power burner(standard burners are 10-12)






The Fgf368

4 burner
standard oven
14,000 btu burner






There is no difference in oven size or in the bake and broil elements themselves. Often times people mistake better for better built. When you are buying an appliance of any type, it is features not the product itself that delineates standard from good and good to great.

French Door Refrigeration

But what makes this refrigerator, French?


Perhaps because the doors "kiss" together? With all due respect to French culture, one may ask why that is French.






A french door refrigerator is essentially a bottom freezer with a side by side refrigerator top. Its an advantage in an kitchen with an island since the refrigerator door is cut in an half. Thus, you have more space without opening a big door(as shown above)


This type of refrigeration is amongst the most popular selling products in the industry


Here are the favs:

JennAir, KitchenAid, Amana and Whirlpool: The same refrigerator for 4 brands is a good choice for larger units and shallow depth.






LG: LG was an early adopter of french door refrigeration. They have a wide variety of products including the only unit designed for a 30 inch cabinet






GE: GE refrigerators were manufactured by LG until this year. GE actually invested in something other than a jet engine. Technologically, it is an interesting product with LED lighting on the inside and a very cool icemaker on the outside

Next Week

Lets see....Because of the woeful availablity of detergents, there will be a post on that. We will also be comparing more ranges. Perhaps dishwashers as well...Throw in an energy tip and a video.

I probably overextended on paddle fans in December, but you will save money by hitting the reverse button.

But first, I need a little assistance. Its a simple question really. What do you want? Lets assume the prices are the same....What is most valuable?

A. Tax rebate or similar (financial incentive)

B. Free Installation of a built in product(labor incentive)

c. Zero per cent for 12 months(finacing incentive)

d. None of the above






Have a great(could have said FANtastic) weekend,



Steve

How To Buy....A Paddle Fan

A less graphic explanation of the last post

Integrated Refrigerators

Take a look at this picture....How many refrigerators do you see?






While you are pondering what defintely is a trick question, this might be a good time to talk about integrated appliances. An integrated appliance fits inside the cabinet without seams. The door and handle typically will protrude even on a shallow depth product. Although stainless has been the trend for the last 10 years, more people are integrating appliances as an alternative. With new refrigeration from SubZero, Thermador and Bosch, employing this different style has become much easier.



It is impossible to locate an integrated product.....Give up?







The answer is 3. You are looking at the Bosch Columns.....








BTW, here is the second dishwasher

Check Before You Buy

How do you buy expensive products? Most of us will talk to a neighbor or a friend, but the best part of the internet is the ability to check social communities for tons of information about a store, product or service.

The following resources can help you find your final purchase destination. BTW, there is not a store with a perfect rating, Yale included. Look for patterns or trends, because stores and customer service are always evolving for better or worse.

My Favorites:

Angies List
Yelp
CitySearch
Consumercheck.org
Better Business Bureau(a tough measure because they lump everyone together regardless of volume)

For more national type of feedback, try Epinions or Bizrate

On The Radio

About 5 years ago, we decided to advertise on the radio. We also decided to write our own ads, which is risky. After all, you don't see copywriters selling appliances.

Usually we have a couple concepts, one wins and becomes the oppressing radio commercials. For December, we have our normal smart woman and clueless guy(Its really me in so many ways)





The other one...well...Its a little out there. Let me know which you think is better. Each ad is one minute

Pro Versus Regular

You want a new gas range and why not? It was three cars ago since you replaced the old one.The new ranges have at least 40-50% more BTUs(or heat) than the older ones, have a convection feature(fan forced heat, more even cooking) and a warming drawer or second oven option.

There are, however, more options to choose than ever. So lets look at 2 more popular styles.

The Wolf Pro. Perhaps one of the best ranges on the market with 3 15,000 BTU burners and a simmer rating of 500 BTU. It has clock and timer and two convection fans in an electric oven for improved circulation. At a price over $5000, it is on the high end.






The JennAir Pro. Jenn air has one burner at 16,000 BTU, another at 15,000 and a dedicated simmer burner as well. The JennAir is an all gas oven and also has a warming drawer, which maintains foods in a low temperature without dehydrating and refreshes leftovers as well...The JennAir has a price tag of just over $2100






The Wolf has the better burners and with convection fans will probably cook more evenly. However, JennAir, like most traditional manufacturers, are quietly catching up to the Pros

In other words, you do not have to spend a fortune to buy a very likeable product

In the next week, we will look at less expensive, yet decent products

Energy Tip Of the Day

I have an easy one. You probably have bought or are buying a Christmas tree. Adorn with LED lights and save a bunch of electricity. These lights do not emit heat, so they are safer. According to Florida Power and light, if everyone chage to LEDS over 400,000 tons of cabon dioxide would not be released into the atmosphere. Yow.


Instead of buying cards, send ecards to eliminate the need for paper...

Detergents and Other Cleaning Powders

Late start today: Our internet connection was down and Shawn is not here. We have 3 requests for discussion on cleaning agents for dishwashers and laundry. I went to Shaws yesterday and was astounded with the lack of suitable products for these new machines. We sell the Persil from Europe(which I love and use), but I realize that shopping at Yale for detergents is not top of the mind.

A few Pointers:


Washers: Has to be HE or high energy on the box. Only a few tablespoons is needed






Dishwashers: Water does not condensate on stainless steel interiors, so you need Jet-Dry or Sidol. Dishes will be drier and you can shut off the heated dry option on your dishwasher to save energy






Fabric Softner: Most front loaders spin at 1000-1600 RPM. For comparason, top loaders spin at 400, so clothes can become wrinkled. Certain types of softners work act as wrinkle releasers. We sell Vernel from Europe, but others are available






If anyone would like sample of Vernel, Persil or Sidol, send me an email. We will have pictures tomorrow

LED Versus Other Bulbs

For the last post on LED for now, we will compare the energy between incandescent, fluorescent and LED. The approximate difference is 85% more efficient than incandescent and 35% more than CFLS. The color rendering is better and the life lasts almost 30 times longer than incandescent and almost 3 times fluorescent.

BTW, the bulb in the picture is a recessed housing. Bulbs are usually not that size

So what do you think?

Next Week

For once, I am at a loss for subject matter. I will defintely cover HE detergents, because they are designed specifically for front load washers. I have also been remiss in providing energy tips


If anyone has a suggestion, then I will oblige next week.....


Until then....Have a nice holiday shopping weekend(although its been Christmas since Labor Day in most stores).


Steve

Sales Tax Rebate For Estar Appliances

From December 1 to December 15, Yale will be rebating the sales tax on all Estar washers, dishwashers and refrigerators from Miele, Whirlpool, Maytag, JennAir, Frigidaire, GE, Amana, Bosch and Electrolux.


You are probably thinking this is a gimmick. Appliance shopping, however, is pretty easy. Compare the model numbers with the prices and that constitutes your buying decision. Its a little different here, because we also do not charge for delivery, removal or even range and dryer cords. We also service what we sell, which is a rarity in this industry. So for the next 2 weeks, when you compare, Yale will be another 5% cheaper.


We actually do believe in Green and EnergyStar products in general. The Yale Green Project started in June of 2006, and we are one of the 12 Green award winners from the City of Boston. The reality is simple. In the age of rising fuel and water bills, energy saving appliances will save an average family significant amounts of money over the lifetime of the unit. Also, we can conserve resources at the same time.



BTW, this is the Yale Blog. Its a deliberately honest column about the pitfalls of buying appliances and lighting. You can search by date or product category and yes we do take requests.



Happy Holidays,


Steve

OEM

OEM is an industry term meaning one company manufacturing basically the same product for different companies under different labels. This philosphy has been around for years especially as we source more product from overseas. It is more efficient, but creating new products becomes more difficult with one source.


Most of the times it is fairly obvious, other times you do not really know like in this instance.....


Pictured below is the glass kitchen at Yale. As you may remember from earlier posts, we try to show direct comparisons between different fuel types such as electric, induction, gas,and pro gas.






We also show the latest and greatest wall ovens. So my interest was piqued to see the new Viking professional 240 volt microwave and steamer. It certainly appears professional

Have a look:






The microwave, however, is the same as the Sharp, and the steamer is the same as a Miele....Logically, you do not want to pay a premium for the same equipment under a different name



Back to LED on Thursday

LED Retrofit

I concentrated on the coolness of the bulb. Incandescents heat to 300 degrees, and these mini heaters add to your HVAC costs, especially in the summer.

Also, LED is only 12 watts versus 75 watt, so you are saving a fortune in electrical costs as well

The Future Of Lighting

Would you buy a light bulb that uses 85% less energy than incandesecent, is dimmable, produces almost zero heat and has a life of 20 years.

The light bulb is LED or Light Emitting Diodes. This bulb is the future of residential lighting.

LED is now saleable, because they cast a 2750 Kelvin degree light, which is almost identical to halogen.

These lights can also be retrofitted to existing 6" recessed cans.

Have a look:

LED Week

This week will be dedicated to LED. It is the future of lighting, and by far the most efficient product ever manufactured.

New posts will star Monday afternoon. It will be worth reading

Black Appliance Friday?

Appliances probably do not make great stocking stuffers. Appliance manufacturers, however, do not seem to know this and have launched a few rebates for this weekend. The most notable is Frigidaires' $100 laundry rebate. Perhaps they forgot that there are already rebates on these machines


Now you can buy this pair(the Gltf2940/Gleq2152) for $899 after sundry rebates






Or the Affinity pair(Atf6000/Aeq6000) at $999






Factory rebates are available not just at Yale, but they only last for three days...

Bathroom Lighting

This will be a simple yet highly effective post. Lighting a bath is simple if you remember one hyphenated word: Cross-illumination


Bathrooms like kitchens have a certain amount amount of task applications. It is important to have optimum lighting for make up and shaving. Its really not that hard in new construction. Place lights on either side of the mirror at about 65-67 inches off the ground for the best results.

The next best would be to recessed lighting on either side of the sink. As far as the rest of the bathroom, its your call...Maybe some water tight recessed or surface fixtures.





It really depends how large a bath. You can always layer the light like a kitchen depending on how many objects therein.

New Wall Ovens...Finally

I am ending my Pre Thanksgiving posts with ovens. Lets set the Way Back machine(Liz) to the 1970s. Convection or fan forced heat was introduced into the marketplace. In the new milennium, convection is still the standard. Now some ovens have two fans in the same oven.

There are two new ovens worth noting:

KitchenAid now has steam in a regular size oven. Steam is a great way to cook as it locks in the nutrients for healthier cooking




Shaun is pointing out the steam dispenser within the machine





The other is the reintroduction of Turbo Chef, which is a speed cooker






Hopefully this may spark the change for general evolution of this segment of the market





Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Personally, I love this holiday. In the morning I serve the homeless at the Pine Street Inn and end the day at my sisters in Medfield. We all used to work together, so no knives are allowed at the table. It is the last great family holiday except we will have to watch the Lions implode again.....


But,

Happy Thanksgiving to yours from ours.



Steve