"Art Todesco" wrote in message
...

How long do
you think it would take it to pay off? BTW, this freezer has survived
being powered off for 4 months and moved 700 miles, approximately 3
years ago. It is a little noisy, but it's been that way for 38 year,
except now it is in a place were I can hear it more.

Hard to know without specifics like cost of new freezer, electricity, usage,
etc.

Everything Trader said was accurate. The Kill-A-Watt meter readings in my
case were even more dramatic because the insulation in my unit had absorbed
moisture over time and the seals had been repaired several times but never
as well as new.

As the unit aged (and presumably was leaking small amounts of refrigerant
from an over-zealous defrost with a sharp tool), the current draw increased
substantially. The new unit, albeit slight smaller and with less freezer
space but more refrigerator space than the old unit, has so far used less
than half the juice of the 30+ year old White-Westinghouse it replaced. The
same gains were had replacing one 12,000 BTU Fedders window AC with two
smaller 5 and 8K BTU units of recent vintage. The new ones use some tricks
to gain efficiency like spraying condensate onto the plastic fan blades to
increase cooling efficiency. Makes it cheaper to run, but noisier to
operate. Ironically, the cost of electricity has risen so much in DC in the
last 5 years that it's only kept my bill at the same amount. Without the
new gear, it would really have soared.

As for the Kill-a-Watt,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009MDBU

Under $20. Every home should have at least one. I've got a few and even
buy them for friends when they complain about their electric bills. It
enables you to determine what devices should be unplugged or put on a
switchable outlet strip because they consume large amounts of standby power.
(Lots of them!)

Only fault of the cheaper units (they make a number of models) is that if
the power blinks, the accumulated readings (the only way to REALLY measure
consumption) are lost. For devices like a refrigerator, it pays to note the
readings every couple of days and jot them down so you don't lose a few
months worth with one blink. I haven't run one off a UPS yet (wouldn't have
worked for the fridge) but I think I'll put that on what my wife calls "The
Science Project" list. (-:

--
Bobby G.