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Food Storage/Cooking | ||||||||
For Your Home | ||||||||
Refrigerators | ||||||||
Styles of Refrigerators Size of Refrigerators Factors that Effect Energy Use Options Available in New Refrigerators Second Refrigerators Maintenance Refrigerators typically consume the most energy of any household appliance other than the heating, cooling, and hot water systems, amounting to 14% of electricity use on average. However, the efficiency of refrigerators has increased dramatically over the past 20 years, particularly since the passage of the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act of 1987. A typical auto-defrost refrigerator freezer sold in 1972 consumed about 2000 kWh of electricity per year ($200 using national averages); by 1990 that had dropped to 900kWh and by 1994 to 670kWh ($67), for a drop of 66% over the 22 year period, and 25% over the past few years alone. Thus, if you have an older refrigerator, it is likely that a new refrigerator will pay for itself in the form of energy savings!
Styles of Refrigerators By far the most common configuration of refrigerator is the Top Mount model, with the freezer unit on top and a larger refrigeration unit on bottom (this is also called a Top Freezer or Top-Bottom style). This style accounts for about 70% of all units sold. In recent years, the Side-by-Side style has become increasingly popular, and now accounts for about 25% of sales. A Side-by-Side model has the freezer unit on one side and the refrigerator on the other, with both units going from top to bottom. Reasons for the increasing popularity of this style is that you do not have to bend as much to find things in the refrigerator, they generally have a larger freezer compartment, and their smaller doors are less likely to get in the way as they swing open. One problem with this style is that, on average, it consumes about 25% more electricity than a Top Mount model. A Bottom Mount (or Bottom-Top) model, which accounts for about 3% of sales, has the freezer compartment on the bottom. This solves the problem of bending for the refrigerator, but not for the freezer. Energy consumption is slightly better than that of Top-Bottom units for newer models. The remaining refrigerator/freezer units have a single outside door, with the freezer unit having a separate internal door. The vast majority of recent single door models are small, countertop models (see next section). Size of Refrigerators When you select a refrigerator, your family size and lifestyle should dictate the size that is most appropriate. Typically, the larger the family the larger the refrigerator. Since refrigerators operate most efficiently when full, it is not very energy efficient to operate a larger refrigerator than you need. In addition, you need to consider the relative sizes of the refrigerator and freezer compartments. A typical 18 cubic foot refrigerator will have a 12.5 cubic feet refrigerator compartment and a 5.5 cubic foot freezer compartment. If you freeze large amounts of meet or prepare meals infrequently and freeze them, you might want to consider a unit with a larger freezer relative to the refrigerator. Height and width of refrigerators vary as well; you will need to consider refrigerator placement and size when choosing a refrigerator. Until fairly recently, almost all refrigerators were about 36 inches deep and therefore stood out beyond the standard depth of kitchen counters and cabinets. Refrigerators that are the same depth as these cabinets and can appear "built in" started to become popular in the 1970s.Originally, specialty brands such as Sub Zero popularized this style; currently, most major manufacturers also produce refrigerators of this style. To accomplish the smaller depth, the manufactures have typically placed the heating coils above (or beneath) the unit, rather then behind. This makes the unit taller, which can have an impact on the placement in the kitchen. At the same time, the smaller depth makes it easier to find items in the refrigerator. Moving the heating coils from the back both reduces the amount of dust that collects on the coils (which affects energy efficiency as noted below), and makes them easier to clean. Factors That Effect Energy Use
Options Available in New Refrigerators
Second Refrigerators Since it is generally older refrigerators that are used in this manner, extra refrigerators tend to be very inefficient. In some cases, it would be more cost-effective to buy a larger new refrigerator for the kitchen and get rid of the second one. In other cases, a household with a 10-year-old refrigerator in the kitchen and a 25-year-old model in the basement could actually save money buying a new kitchen unit and replacing the basement model with the old kitchen unit. In almost all cases of a 25-year-old second refrigerator it would be cost-effective to replace that unit with a new model. Obviously, an even more effective strategy would be to get rid of the extra refrigerator entirely, or plug it in only when necessary. Maintenance Email Us for more energy efficiency information or to speak with a Personal Energy Advisor call, 1-800-562-1482. | ||||||||
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