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terry terry is offline
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Default Energy savings of a ' fridge

On Apr 11, 6:24*pm, Ken wrote:
On Apr 8, 9:41*pm, "C & E" wrote:

I just saw an Energy Star commercial which stated that a 'fridge built ten
years ago uses twice as much electricity as a new one. *Does that sound like
a logical stat to you? *I'll have to spend some time researching that when I
get time but it sounds a bit inflated to me.


OK, here's one data point in the comparison:

We were getting a new fridge to replace an old one that was about
10-15 years old (I don't know the exact age because the previous
homeowners bought it.) *Shortly before the new fridge was to be
delivered, we plugged the old one into a kill-a-watt meter, and
recorded the usage over a 1 week period. *Result was 2.5 kWh per day
electrical usage. *After the new one was delivered, we plugged in the
same kill-a-watt meter and recorded the usage over another 1 week
period. *Usage was 1.0 kWh per day. *So the old fridge used 2.5 times
as much electrical energy to run. This was measured with a similar
load of contents in the two fridges, with similar door opening and
closing frequencies, same time of year, so the house interior temp was
about the same between the two measurements, same kill-a-watt meter
used, so any meter calibration bias would cancel out. New fridge is
somewhat smaller than the old fridge, old one was something like 21 cu
ft, new one 19 cu ft. I think, so that could explain part of the
energy use reduction.

When we bought the new fridge (this was about a year ago), we were
told by the salesman (so take this for what it's worth ;-) ), that
fridges had recently gone through a redesign to make them much more
efficient, but lower reliability. He said manufacturers had reduced
their compressor warranty periods from 5 years to 1 year.

Ken


Interesting info; thanks for publishing.

BTW the difference between the 2.5 and 1.0 kWh (1.5 kWh per day)
would, at our rates have a cost difference about 15 cents per day, or
roughly $4.50 per month.

However any 'wasted energy' (i.e. heat from the older less efficient
appliance) offsets home heating, when required. The amount is
equivalent to a 1.5 kilowatt heater running for one hour per day.
Since we use electric heating most months of the year don't think the
difference would be appreciable or noticeable here!