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In buying appliances for our new house, I'm getting the strong impression that EnergyStar is bullshit. A congressional audit has revealed that any ridiculous pretend device can get the EnergyStar seal including—my favorite—a gasoline-powered alarm clock the size of a small generator. I'll be ignoring EnergyStar now, and doing the math on energy consumption myself. Consumer Reports does a fine job of doing their own analysis on energy usage, too.
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Ken Cuccinelli argues in his lawsuit against the federal government over healthcare that it is unconstitutional for the federal government to require citizens to buy a good or service. Salon points out that congress and President Washington mandated that all 18-45 year old "free able-bodied white male citizens" arm themselves, with specific items that all such citizens much own. They had six months. That was in 1792, with some of the folks in congress having written the constitution that is ostensibly now being violated. I wonder what's changed?
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Waldo,
Watch out for EnergyStar window A/C units (and possibly other units that tried but failed to get ES rated). I discovered a terrible, nasty mold problem in all 4 ES-rated window units we have last September. I took them apart to clean them and noticed a thick layer of slime that looked like something that could be dropped on Titan and have intelligent life being produced in a few decades!
The problem is that A/C units produce condensation. It should be drained immediately. In ES rated units, there are no holes to drain the condensate, and it is “slung” by the rear fan onto the heat-exchange coils in order to gain a tiny amount of “free” extra cooling by the evaporation off of those coils. Most of it does not evaporate and re-collects in the bottom of the A/C for up to 1 1/2″ of depth before spilling over a sill at the rear. That warm water collects pollen, leaves, insects, dust and basically a nice stew of food for mold, which thrives to the point of becoming gelatinous and toxic to humans. It then sends its nasty spores right into the cooled air that comes out the front of the A/C, as well as often leaking under the cheap layer of Styrofoam that separates the front and the rear of the A/C units and leaking into your home.
My solution was to use gallons of bleach and water, and hours of time to meticulously disassemble and clean the 4 units, then use a 1/4″ drill bit to drill several holes at the rear of each unit in places where the drill would not damage the coils. We shall see this summer how much the drain holes affect the efficiency, but I doubt it will be noticeable on the electric bill.
Definitely noted—thanks for the warning, Chris!