Beyond the normal thought of recycle and reuse should be refurbished and recertified.   So much energy is employed in the manufacture and distribution of products which is rarely considered when a product is purchased.   Much energy can be saved by purchasing a product already manufactured, omitting the need to manufacture more.

I frequently use sites like www.ecost.com , www.overstock.com , www.refurbdepot.com to see what is available when I’m looking for a product.  My experience is that manufacturers with recognizable names, that I see advertising on TV, thouroughly inspect products returned to them for quality control.  Repairs are made and the entire use of the product is tested for operation.  Typically if products have been returned for other reasons, those problems are also repaired at the same time.  So in most cases products that are offered as refurbished have been tested much more thouroughly than products rolling off an assembly line.  

And the best news is that you can save a lot of money buying a like-new product with as good or better chance of operating satisfactorily over the life of the product.

Electronics are one of the best places to look at recertified products.  I practice what I preach.  I have a Denon amplifier, Panasonic Blu-Ray player, and Dyson vacuum.  The amp and the vacuum were purchased for about 50% of their cost a most stores and the Blu-Ray player was 75% of the cost of advertised specials I’ve seen for the exact same product.

Knock on wood, we’ve had no problem with any of these products.  However if you have a concern, warranty extensions are available from companies specializing in refurbished products.  Typically to add a years warranty will cost 10% of the discounted purchase price.

 The best tool in your arsenal to conserve energy and cost is your computer and the internet.  Shop around, compare without impulse buying, without consuming gasoline, employing the internet to research and the result might be a great quality product for a lot less than you thought.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 12th, 2009 at 9:16 am and is filed under Green. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.