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From: lid

I just moved into an apartment that has a 14 year old Gibson
fridge. The refrigerator is running all the time. I told the
landlord about it and he brought his repairman to look at it. At
that time, the fridge was coming on every 5 minutes, running for
4 minutes, shutting off for 5 minutes and then back on again. I
timed this fridge and wrote down the times which I explained to
the landlord before he brought his repair guy in. Now, a few
days later and the time of on/off running time has reduced to
only 2 minutes between on and off and then 2.5 minutes between
off and back on again.

The landlord says that there's nothing wrong with it the way
it is and that it is an modern efficiency refrigerator. How
efficient is an appliance that's running 12 hours out of every
24 hour day??? I tried to explain to him that when I moved out
to his apartment that I brought exactly the same electrical
fixtures that I had in my previous apartment( monthly bill's
were $27/month average, also the same exact electrical company)
and that my first 2 bills at this current landlords apartment
were close to $100. Now admittedly in this current landlords
apartment there is baseboard electrical heat which does cost a
bit more. But this early move in period was prior to the real
heating season kicking in which is kicking in now.

I've put a fridge thermometer in both the top freezer and the
bottom fridge and the temps are barely acceptable with the
freezer set to the coldest and the bottom fridge control seems
to have no effect on the temp as I've turned it down until it
nearly is in the off position. This bottom control seems not to
be functioning properly as a control for setting temperatures.
What is a tenant to do?? Help!!!!

- If you've been using the electric heat, that explains *much* of your added
electric consumption.

- A 12 year old fridge is NOT anywhere near as efficient as a brand new one. In
electricity savings alone it would pay if YOU bought a new unit and told the LL
to store the existing one until you vacate.