Lighter Footstep: Ten Cheap Ways to Chill Your Refrigerator
Editor's note: This week, Lighter Footstep's Chris Baskind shares some tips for making your refrigerator run more efficiently. This post was originally published on May 30, 2007.
So how old is your refrigerator?
More than five years? If your fridge is similar to most, it uses about 40% more electricity than the ENERGY STAR certified units being sold today. And given the fact that your fridge is one of a typical home's biggest energy gobblers, that adds up to a pretty good chunk of change each year.
Replacing your current refrigerator with a modern unit could save you upwards of $70 and reduce your home's annual carbon dioxide footprint by a thousand pounds a year. Given that the life cycle of a fridge is ten years or more, it makes sense to replace aging units whenever possible. But that's not always financially feasible.
If you're not ready to upgrade, there are some things you can do to improve the efficiency of your current model:
- Check your door seals. Put a piece of paper in the fridge door and see how easy it is to remove. If it slips right out, you know cold air is doing the same thing. A little silicone spray may renew the rubber sufficiently to improve things. Otherwise, check on the availability of replacement seals.
- Clean the coils on the back of your refrigerator once or twice a year. Dust build-up insulates the coils, making heat transfer less efficient. Vacuum whenever you notice a dust buildup. Be sure to unplug first.
- Relocate your refrigerator if it's in direct sunlight, beneath a heating duct, or next to your range or oven. The warmer your fridge's environment, the harder it must work to keep its contents cool.
- Be sure there's a few inches of clear space between the condenser coils and the wall. There should be similar space on the sides. Give the warm air coming off the coils somewhere to go.
- Set your thermostats to realistic levels. ENERGY STAR recommends 35 to 38 degrees Fahrenheit for the fridge, and 0 degrees for the freezer. It's worth checking these temperatures with a household thermometer.
- Keep the freezer defrosted. A quarter inch of frost is too much.
- A full freezer is a good thing for your refrigerator's efficiency. That's not the case in the cold section, however. Avoid overcrowding, and leave room for air circulation.
- Cover liquids stored in the fridge. Uncovered foods release moisture, making your fridge's compressor work harder.
- Quick in; quick out. The less you keep the refrigerator and freezer doors open, the less energy you'll use. Organize your fridge so things are easy to find. Label frozen goods for quick identification.
- You can improve an older refrigerator's efficiency by up to 10% by attaching one-inch foam sheeting to the sides. Too ugly? Do the side facing the wall and save 5%. Don't cover coils or electrical lines, and leave room against the wall for air circulation.
Cool off your fridge — and cool off your energy bills!
Copyright © 2007 Lighter Footstep Media
Tags: Conservation, Home and Garden, refrigerator, savings
June 6th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
I live in a rented apartment and, as is normal in the USA, the refrigerator is owned by the landlord. It’s more than 12 years old but certainly less than 20 and was, of course, selected on the basis of lowest price. The biggest improvement I’ve made was applying foam weatherstripping tape to the area between the refrigerator and freezer doors and to the edges of the doors themselves near that area. With this addition I’m able to turn off the electric heater that normally is needed to prevent condensation there (with that switch labeled something like dry/humid or prevent moisture/save energy). The improvement is quite apparent in the Kill-A-Watt readings. One has to wonder why the manufacturer used the heater rather than a prettier, color-matching version of my added foam. You’d think a little insulation would be cheaper than a heater and switch and wiring. Probably just tradition.
Less effective than foam, but free and prettier, I’ve got old towels draped over the top and down one side, held on with magnets scavenged from old disk drives. I’ve been considering attaching foam.
June 6th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
My husband and I were able to, when buying our house, really watch appliance sales to find an Energy Star fridge. One great tip that helped us get a steal was to check out Sears outlet stores or other manufacturer’s outlet stores. Basically, if you are willing to put up with minor cosmetic blemishes (in our case, a small scratch on the side of the fridge) you can really walk away with a bargain. We got our Energy Star washer and dryer this way, too.
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:05 pm
[...] Refrigerators run more efficiently when the freezer compartment is mostly full, so why not use any extra space to store your stash if your freezer is rarely fully stocked? We advise you to store your fabric in plastic bags before using this tip, though, because you don’t want it to end up with freezer smell. (Plastic bags aren’t all that eco-friendly, we know, but you should be able to use the same ones for years.) [...]