Are Energy-Efficient Appliances Worth it?

As electricity bills increase and take a greater toll on our finances, you might be wondering if now is the time to replace your older appliances with one that’s more energy-efficient – especially if your current devices are showing their age. 

The energy comparison service iSelect has crunched the numbers to find out how much money a new energy-efficient appliance could be saving you each year in electricity, and how long it could take to receive a ‘return on investment’. 

How much money can energy-efficient appliances save you?  

The amount of energy saved on energy-efficient appliances differs depending on the exact specs of the models and how much you use them. Using multiple devices to calculate the averages, we were able to reveal considerable savings across various types of appliances. 

A one-or-two-star clothes dryer could cost an average of $356.22 to run per year (when being used four times a week), whereas a 10-star dryer could cost as little as $137.23 when being used the same amount. That could be a savings of $218.99 per year! The washing machine, the humble workhorse of the laundry, yields the second-largest savings between an energy-guzzling model and a high-efficiency one. A two-star clothes washer could cost an average of $113.63 per year (running four times a week), whereas a five- or five-and-a-half-star washer would cost an average of $35.11, saving you $78.52 a year. 

Fridges had the third-largest annual saving, with seven- to eight-star fridges saving $59.95 a year on average over a two-and-a-half-star fridge.  

It was televisions where the savings between lower-rated and higher-rated devices had a smaller difference in energy cost. A seven- or eight-star LED TV could save an average of $15.73 per year (based on two hours of use every night) compared to a three- to three-and-a-half-star device.  

How long does it take for higher-efficiency appliances to ‘pay for themselves’? 

Higher energy efficiency in appliances comes with a higher price. They save money to use, but how long does it take for the yearly savings to offset the initial purchase price?  

Well, it really depends on the type of device.  

Clothes dryers had the quickest time to pay their new owners back at 5.9 years, despite having the biggest difference in average purchase price between the one- to two-star and 10-star appliance at $1,306.85. 

But a score of 10 is the best possible for energy efficiency, and saving an average of almost $220 per year means the device will pay back the difference over a cheaper, inefficient one. 

Fridges had the second-quickest time to pay themselves back at 8.2 years, while the annual usage savings for these appliances was the third-biggest of all the appliances we looked at. Combine this with the difference in sale price of $492.00, then it’s easy to see how they can give a return on investment in under a decade. 

An LED TV had a difference in purchase price of $199.13, and it would take 12.6 years to pay this back with an average annual saving of $15.73 on your energy bill.