In article ,
Nate Nagel wrote:

just an update... bought a shiny new GE fridge a couple months back.
have had it plugged into a kill-a-watt just to see if it really lived up
to the energy-saving hype. It's been running for about 400 hours since
the last power outage, and average rate of energy consumption works out
to about 636 kWh/year. energyguide says 458, but I've had the "energy
saver" turned off because I was getting condensation on the door seals
(it's pretty darn humid here, even with the AC and a dehumidifier in the
basement.)

Old smaller fridge was over 1000 kWh/year according to the KAW so good
deal. Now at that rate for the fridge to pay for itself it'll take...
lessee...

hmm, this is kinda like cars, isn't it?

But it's quiet, keeps my beer cold, and makes the girlie happy, none of
which the old fridge was doing towards the end...

nate

"Energy saver switch?"

Step 1. Make the walls of a refrigerator too thin.

Advantage: increase capacity without increasing footprint.

Disadvantage: insufficient insulation to keep the warm room air out and
the cold air in.

Step 2. Notice that the disadvantage above has a most unpleasant
corollary: In humid conditions, the outside of the fridge sweats. It's
too cool, due to lack of insulation, so condensation forms.

Step 3. Engineering pow-wow leads to the installation of a heating coil
inside the outer wall of the fridge, to keep the outer wall warm enough
to prevent condensation.

Step 4. Choose to disregard that the heating coil compounds the problem
of insufficient insulation, in that it makes the fridge even less energy
efficient; in two ways. Uses power to run the heating coil, and forces
the fridge to run more to counteract the heat from the coil.

Step 5. Supply a switch to turn the heating coil off, during periods of
low humidity.

Step 6. And this is really a tribute to marketing, here. Claim that the
under-insulated fridge, complete with heating coil, is an energy-saving
model.

Step 7. Label the switch "Energy Saver." In the OFF position, the
heater is on.