The refrigerator accounts for 13% of the energy used in an average home. The bigger your refrigerator the more costly it will be to run and if it’s an older model it’s eating up much more power than the new energy efficient models. Running the ice maker in your fridge? Yep that’s more power!
So how can you cut your refrigeration costs when the thing is plugged in 24/7?
You may not have much choice over the positioning of your fridge in a fitted kitchen, but the best place for a fridge is on an external wall away from heat sources, (oven, dishwasher, heating vents).
Every time you open your fridge door warm air is admitted, so limit the amount of times that you open the door.
When you are preparing a meal, take out everything you need in one go instead of going back and forth for ingredients.
Think about placing cold drinks into a thermos or an ice chest, this way you can access cold drinks all day long without making your fridge work harder to get rid of all of that warm air.
Butter stays fresh and easy to spread in a butter bell or heavy porcelain/stoneware butter dish.
A University of Florida study found that poor door opening habits can account for as much as 120kw/h of your annual consumption. That’s $18 per year.
Not a huge amount of money, but little savings add up and why waste money and burn more fossil fuel than we have to? Our world could use a little less pollution don’t you think?
When you take something from the freezer that needs time to defrost, don’t leave it on the counter top or put it in the microwave (that’s throwing money away!).
Get it out the day before you need to use it and place it in the fridge, it will cool the fridge down as it thaws, meaning your fridge doesn’t have so much work to do.
Don’t overfill your fridge. Always ask yourself if an item needs to be in there at all. Fridges work better when there is room for the air to circulate.
Your freezer however should be as full as possible. Add some bottles of water to take up space if you don’t have it full of food. Take them out when you need the space and set them in the fridge to defrost.
Lots of vegetables keep better at room temperature, storing them in the fridge leads to quicker deterioration and more items means more work for your fridge.
Don’t put hot/warm items into the fridge, let them cool down first. Your fridge works by removing heat from the items inside it. The hotter the items, the harder your fridge compressor has to work.
If you have cold winters, you could even “turn your fridge off” during the colder months.
Take a couple of empty plastic milk jugs, fill them with water and set them outside overnight to freeze. In the morning bring them in and put them inside your fridge.
They will help to keep everything inside cool. You don’t need to actually turn the fridge off, the ice packs will stop the compressor kicking in until the fridge temperature rises. Replace the ice packs as necessary.
Is your fridge an older model?
If it is, it could be costing you money. Older fridges were not made with energy efficiency in mind. Couple that with failing door strips and you are throwing money away.
Test your door strips - insert a piece of paper, close it in the door and pull, if it comes out easily your door seals are no good.
Consider these two fridges, of more or less equal capacity.
A 10 year old side by side model using
1200kw/h per year costs $180 to run.
A newer, more efficient top freezer model using
500 kw/h per year costs $75 to run.
Over the lifetime of your fridge (15 years) you would save $1575 in electrical costs.
A new top freezer model can be purchased for under $500, meaning the new appliance would pay for itself and you would still have saved $1075 overall. A yearly saving of $71.
How about going fridge free?
If you have a freezer then you really don’t need a fridge. The most efficient type of freezer is a chest freezer which we’ll talk about in a moment. But first -
Go and take a look in your fridge right now, what’s in there? An assortment of drinks, some sandwich supplies (meat, cheese, mayo), leftovers, yogurt, salad, butter, milk, a few bits and pieces that have lost all resemblance to actual food due to the fuzzy mold on them. Hmm I’m struggling a bit here to remember what goes in a fridge as I haven’t used one since 2007.
Ok lets work with that list.
Drinks – in the winter your drinks will keep cool by themselves – unless you are being very silly and heating your house to an absurd temperature. If you want some extra chill pop them outside for half an hour.
Sandwich Supplies – Meat and cheese can be kept in a freezer. If sandwiches are on the menu just remember to take the fixings out of the freezer a few hours before lunch. Store brought mayo has enough preservatives in it that a jar will last in the cupboard for a few weeks no problem. In very hot weather a cooler with a couple of ice packs in it will do the trick.
Leftovers – Simple. Cook the right size portions and you won’t have any left overs to store or try and come up with palatable ways to use. I find it amazing that whole books have been written to solve the problems of using up left overs in creative ways, when it’s so much easier to not produce the leftovers in the first place. If on the odd occasion you do find yourself with leftovers, pop them into a bag in the freezer and use them next time you make soup.
Yogurt – Yogurt can be kept in the freezer and this is fine if you are going to eat it as a frozen treat or use it in cooking. But for general eating thawed yogurt doesn’t work so well, it tends to be a bit grainy. So once again store it in your trusty cooler, or pick up an inexpensive yogurt maker and make your own fresh yogurt, which is much better than the stuff you get in stores anyway.
Butter – Keeps fine in the freezer, just take it out a few hours before you need to use it. For general use keep it in a heavy porcelain/stoneware butter dish.
Milk – Again this depends on how you use milk. If you only use it for cooking then keep it in the freezer and defrost as you need it. For other uses, keep it in the cooler.
Salad Vegetables – During the cooler months salad sits happily in our veggie racks, during the warmer months it comes in fresh from the garden so storage isn’t an issue. However if you aren’t growing your own food then tomatoes, lettuce, celery, all keep well in a cooler.
As I’ve mentioned in the list above a cooler (ice chest) is perfect for those things which you can’t freeze, but do need to be a little cooler than room temperature. All you need to do is switch over the icepacks once or twice a day depending on the temperature in your kitchen.
If going fridge free doesn’t appeal to you keep these tips in mind
- Refrigerators with the freezer on either the bottom or top are the most efficient. Bottom freezer models use approximately 16 percent less energy than side-by-side models and top freezer models use about 13 percent less than side-by-side.
- Through-the-door icemakers and water dispensers are convenient and reduce the need to open the door, which helps maintain a more constant temperature; however, these convenient items will increase your refrigerator’s energy use by 14 to 20 percent.
- Mini-doors give you easy access to items most often used. The main door is opened less often, which saves energy.
- Too large a refrigerator may waste space and energy. One that’s too small can mean extra trips to the grocery store. Your best bet is to decide which size fits your needs, then compare the Energy Guide label on each so you can purchase the most energy efficient make and model.
- A manual defrost refrigerator uses half the energy of an automatic defrost model but must be defrosted regularly to stay energy efficient.
- Make sure air can circulate around the condenser coils. Leave a space between the wall or cabinets.
- Refrigerators with anti-sweat heaters consume five percent to 10 percent more energy. Look for models with an “energy saver” switch that lets you turn down – or off – the heating coils (which prevent condensation).
- Don’t put the refrigerator near a heat source – an oven, the dishwasher or direct sunlight from a window.
- Keep your refrigerator’s coils clean. Brushing or vacuuming the coils can improve efficiency by as much as 30 percent.
- Check door seals to make sure they are airtight. To test them, close the door on a dollar bill and try to pull it out. If the dollar slides out easily, kiss that dollar away because you’re wasting energy and money by letting cold air leak out!
- Check the temperature – a fridge that is 10 degrees colder than necessary can use 25 percent more energy. Refrigerators should be kept between 35 and 38 degrees – freezers at 0 degrees Fahrenheit.
- A full refrigerator retains cold better than an empty one. If your refrigerator is nearly empty, store water-filled containers inside. The mass of cold items will enable the refrigerator to recover more quickly after the door has been opened. On the other hand, don’t overfill it, since that will interfere with the circulation of cold air inside. The simplest solution is to buy the right size for your family in the first place.
- Open the door as little as possible. Get in and out quickly. Label leftovers (if you have them) so you can quickly see what they are.
- Regularly defrost manual-defrost models. Frost buildup increases the amount of energy needed to keep the motor running.
- Allow hot foods to cool before refrigerating or freezing.
- Get rid of that older, energy-hogging second refrigerator in your garage! One large refrigerator is cheaper to run than two smaller ones.
Freezer
Chest freezers save money
The reason chest freezers are preferable to the upright models is that they use much less power. Each time you open the door on an upright model the cool air rushes out and the freezers motor has to come back on again to compensate. A chest freezer doen’t have that problem because cold air sinks. When you open the lid you don’t lose the cold air, so the compressor doesn’t need to kick in so often. Chest freezers are also better insulated than uprights.
Freezers, whether chest or upright, consume more electricity (up to 40% more) if they have an automatic defrost facility.
