OT:Fridges and energy savings questions

A While back in an energy saving post someone said they cut their bill by $40 per month by replacing a fridge. We've been plugging away with a 23 year old unit. granted its only 18+ cu ft and with creative arrangement serves 2 adults and three kids (WHAT??!! No Ice Through Door???!!!) Yup we've all mastered the trays! but, tell me, can I really cut $40/mo by buying new? Even if it means a 20-21 cu ft model? Its humming away as I type.

can not quote any numbers about current wattage usage versus potential wattage usage, but i venture to say that is does not cost you $40.00 a month to run your current refrigerator, therefore i do not believe in that much savings per month. that said, new refrigerators are more energy efficient due to motor designs and insulation plus ice through the door is more efficient also-less door opening, less frost buildup from warmer air entering when door is opened. sales pitch sometimes state energy savings will pay for new refrigerator in short time (?).

(quoted from post at 00:44:43 12/24/12) but, tell me, can I really cut $40/mo by buying new?

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Highly unlikely but for the cost of half of the anticipated savings you can own a meter that will tell you exactaly what you current unit is using every month. http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4400-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU Everybody should one one of these units, its a real eye opener on your true energy consumption. It also dispells the myths that are rampant in the energy conservation topics. In my experience around home, farm and even my camper, less than 10% of the myths about energy waste are true.Many of them are out right wrong. Others are just false, requiring me to live hundreds of years to ever "break even" on purchases intended to save me money.

The best energy saving device I ever bought was a $20 Kill-a-watt meter and all it takes from there on is 8th grade math and common sense.

Was just in the news that the "new star efficiency" ratings are not all they are cracked up to be. Basic rule of thumb, if the appliance in question is running constantly to do it's job it's time to replace it (AC, fridge, freezer). If it seems to be operating with normal cycles replacing it isn't cost effective. You will save more money in the long run with better light bulbs.

Rick

Buy enough of them and get a refund from the utility company!

We replaced our 34 year old Frigidaire about eight months ago with a new enegy saving Frigidaire SS counterdepth, ice & water in the door model. We have not noticed a drop in our electricity bill. Maybe our old frig was energy efficient and we didn't realize it.

My fridge died sometime Friday night. Grrrrr......
So Mrs. Wile E and I went out around 2pm yesterday and bought a new one. $1,700 that is with the delivery. At least I was able to put the food that was savable out in the garage in bags so it wasn't a total loss.

$40 per month would be $480 per year. Maybe they ment it saves $40 per year instead of $40 per month? Older refrigerators do use $120 or more of electricity in a year, that's only $10/month.

Unless an old refrigerator is bad and is now running constantly you really cannot justify replacing a refrigerator based on just energy savings alone.

You can start by getting a "Kill-a-Watt" meter, which monitors the actual energy usage of an appliance. (I bought mine at Harbor Freight.) Plug the fridge into it for a day or two and see how much juice it used. If it doesn't work out to over $40/day, it's pretty hard to say you'll save that much with a new refrigerator.

By the way, my wife insists on having three refrigerators and a freezer. Two of the appliances are less than ten years old, while the other two are over twenty. My electric bill in months without air conditioning runs about $125. Assuming lighting, electric ovens, water pump, air compressor, microwave and other loads account for 25 bucks, that tells me my four major appliances average $25 apiece to operate.

Here in Motown, Detroit Edison will pay you 40 bucks for your old refrigerator, which doesn't go very far against the purchase price, but at least they take care of disposal. While checking on this, I found a chart that shows typical refrigerator operating costs by size and vintage.
Detroit Edison refrigerator costs

If you have a working refrigerator I wouldn't replace it. We old folks here thought a bottom freezer fridge would be nice so three yrs ago we got a LG a month ago it started acting up repair man said it wasn't shutting off the heater coil he put it back together said to call some woman in India who doesn't know what a refrigerator is and see if they would send parts since it wasn't very old. Waste of time. He put it back together and it's worked for a month so far. If yours works stick with it til it dies they don't make them like they used to.

Since fridges have been equipped with auto defrost and a separate door for the freezer section. The two primary ways to limit power consumption are #1 Locate the fridge in a cool part of the room or house, away from sunlight, floor vents etc. #2 Keep the d*mmed door shut instead of standing there with it open wondering what you want.
Ultra efficient fridges are similar to a chest type freezer with a top lid. When the door is open, cold air can not fall out of the fridge.

My wife and I recently (September of this year) replaced the fridge that came with our house we bought two years ago. The fridge was purchased new in October 1965 according to the owners manual left with the house. It was a GE with drawer freezer on the bottom, around 20 C.F., and according to the nameplate was rated 5.8 Amp. When we bought the house, we had the fridge out for painting so put the kill-o-watt on it. Unfortunately, when the fridge started up, it pulled enough surge amps to cause the kill-o-watt to alarm as to an overload so I was unwilling to leave it on for a day or two to see the actual usage. I did put my amp-clamp on the line in the breaker panel though which showed running current draw was close to 7-8 A. To date, the new 26
CF freezer drawer on the bottom, french doors on top Maytag we bought has not seemed to make much of a difference in the electrical usage when comparing last year's equivalent month. I figure we saved enough going to the scratch-n-dent store and asking for the additional cash discount (total of $600 less that the exact same model number retails for at Menards) to offset any savings we might ever see on the electric bill. It is worth mentioning that the only defect we found was after we hauled it home and is a very small dent in the handle for the freezer which is easily concealed by a kitchen towel.

As a side note, we also have a hand-me-down of a hand-me-down ~16 CF chest style Kenmore deep freeze that we can only guess is from the early 80's. It is in our un-insulated garage and I did connect the kill-o-watt on it for a week in the heat of August. I figured at our $0.11 (taxes and fees averaged in co-op rate) KWH rate would cost us at most $3.00 / month to run.

Keep it till it quits. A 20 year old refrigerator doesn't use that much power and you'll never recoup the cost of replacing it through energy savings. At the most it may have 3-5 years left anyone. Replace it the next time it needs to be serviced.

Now if you have a 40 year old (or older) fridge or freezer you might be better off taking it out and replacing it even if it is working. Two reasons - the older ones use that much more energy and if its lasted that long they may last another 30-40 years while being inefficent the whole time.

I purchased a cheap meter that will measure frequency, power factor, amps, kw-hr for around $20 on ebay. I wanted it to measure the frequency of my generator. I never measured the power a refrig uses. I doubt if a refrig would use a total of $40 a month total.

Thank you, but I'll keep my 60+ year old refrigerator. If they built it good enough to last over 60 years, why would I want to replace it with something that MIGHT last 5 years (If I was lucky).