Efficient fridge
You may have an energy efficient fridge with an A rating or like me you may be stuck with the noisy, old piece of junk that your landlord provided you with. Either way, there are still steps you can take to make it more efficient.
A fridge wastes most energy when you open the door - cold air drops out, warm air replaces it, the thermostat realises that the temperature has risen and it chugs away using more electricity to try and cool it back down again. So only open the door if you need something.
An efficient fridge is a full fridge.
Less air escapes when the door is opened so less energy is required to cool the fridge down every time. Don't buy a fridge that's too big for your needs. If, like me, your fridge is barely ever full then you can cheat by filling up a shelf with bottles full of water.Never put anything heated or warm into the fridge. Leave it to cool down to room temperature first. Your fridge would have to work overtime to cool down anything above room temperature and that's a waste of your hard earned cash!
Finally, make sure your fridge is suitaby positioned - it needs plenty of ventilation at the back to let the warm air escape; it shouldn't be next to something warm - for example, the oven; it should be away from direct sunlight.
5 Comments:
You could try buying a SAVAplug to wire onto that nasty fridge your landlord has left you with, you will save electricity and you can take it with you if you move.
We bought one for our old freezer in the shed and it seems to be working well.
Thanks Tracy - I'll give it a go. That's a lovely little site you've got going there. I'm very envious of your allotment.
Thanks Caldini!
Don't wish to knock your web site but the first two points are not true. Opening doors makes very little difference. Room temperature air contains only a little heat, so cooling it does not cost much energy. In addition, modern A or A+ appliances do not respond to that little bit heat ingress from opening the door. To do so would cost energy!
The full fridge half-full fridge makes little difference also. The energy test is carried out with the appliance empty, so if anything, they are designed to run well empty!!
It is true about size of appliance. The American style side-by-side for example might be A-rated but in fact consumes 2-3 times more energy than a standard top-bottom fridge-freezer. It is also true about warm food (having a lot of heat) but even if the food is at 20°C, it will take 10-20 hours to cool to 5 degrees. The savaplug does not work either, this and all of the above I have tested.
While it is good to buy the best quality appliances you can afford, and not for example keep your old fridge in the garage to store beer, 80% of home energy is space heating and water heating - this is where efforts should be concentrated. After that, change the lightbulbs to CFLs.
For an English assignment I need to blog about environmental issues. Do you mind giving me more information about the efficient fridge? Are there different brands, and sizes? Thank you!
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