Choosing appliances wisely

If you’re in the market for a dishwasher, clothes washer, refrigerator or freezer, there’s only one game in town: Energy Star. The federal program establishes strict performance standards and identifies products that will use less electricity and, by extension, burn less coal at the power plant — a key contributor to global warming. But with so many manufacturers now getting with the program — the program’s website recommends 815 dishwashers, for example — things can get confusing. Uh, which among those is the most efficient?

The answer? Go one layer deeper. Spreadsheets on the Energy Star site reveal, as a percentage, how far a given appliance exceeds the standard. They also provide a score called the “energy factor” that allows you to compare various makes and models at a glance.

Note that Energy Star doesn’t rate small appliances, because they are generally used intermittently and consume relatively minor amounts of juice. But you can still rethink your countertop: The 600-watt iWavecube microwave is roughly a foot square, stylish as heck, and uses about half the energy of its bigger brethren. When all you heat up is coffee and the odd slice of pizza (anyone out there nuked an entire casserole lately?), it’s really all you need.

Keen to do the green thing with your kitchen scraps, but perhaps less enthusiastic about keeping a compost box? You need a Naturemill ($225-$400, depending on features), a compact appliance that tucks away in a cabinet and each month converts up to 120 pounds of carrot peels, past-due celery and scorned macaroni into rich soil — without any effort, odors or wrigglers. Just chop up your goodies, open the top hatch and scrape them in. That’s it. The machine does the rest, mixing, heating and aerating the material; a light comes on about every two weeks to tell you when it’s time empty the soil bin into your garden.