On Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:50:57 -0400, "Ed Pawlowski"
wrote:


"Nate Nagel" wrote in message

do both of these numbers seem reasonable? A new 25 ft^3 "energy star"
fridge would use a little more than half as much juice as my 20 year old
18 ft^3 clunker?

If this is true, I won't feel nearly so badly about spending the $$$...

We had a "second" fridge for a few years, an old one given to us. We
replaced it with one twice the size and frost free. Electric bill dropped
$10 a month. Big improvements since 20 years ago.

I know my pretty new Maytag pretty well as I was inside replacing some
parts. I know it defrosts once in 8 hours or running. There is a timer
that runs only when the compressor runs and after it's run for 8 hours
it goes into defrost. If there is not much frost the heater will come
on, in most cases, only one time as there is a thermostat that kicks
it out when the coil area reaches about 45 degrees. I have had a
killawatt hooked up and the amp draw during defrost is about 3 or so
amps for a short time, the running amp draw is way down, sometimes
around 1 amp.

We replaced an old old unit with this and - true, I sware, light bill
went down close to 25 $. The old unit was pre 1969, so there has been
lots of progress.

On a side note - one issue with the new units is the running time,
they run for a long time, the compressor is SMALL. So, if you were
using a generator like during a power outtage to run the thing, it
takes a long time to cycle the unit..But - that's not an issue most
times.

Gene