Did you know your refrigerator is roughly 10% of your home energy bill?
> Keep your fridge and freezer stocked. It takes more energy to cool empty spaces than it does to keep food cold and frozen. If you can’t keep that much food on hand (I live alone, so this is a challenge), fill containers with water to take up empty space. Do not overfill the space, though, since air needs to circulate.
> Keep the condenser coils clean. These should be vacuumed and cleaned at least once a year. The dust and cobwebs make them work harder, wearing them out faster and using unnecessary energy.
> Defrost regularly. When there is a wall of ice on the inside of your fridge and freezer, the cooling elements and condensers have to work harder. This wears out the parts and uses more electricity. Many fridges are self-defrosting, but there are a few of us that don’t own them. I have a Sunfrost, and have to manually defrost once or twice a year, but every time I do, I know I am keeping it at its peak performance and my electric bill down.
> Buy a Sunfrost! These fridges and freezers were created for off-grid homes (DC electric). They were so popular, they’ve been adapted for AC. The compressors are on the top, which makes sense to me. They get hot, and heat rises. They are underneath traditional refrigerators, creating heat that rises and needs to be cooled off. On top, the heat rises to the ceiling, not impacting the unit at all.
When I bought mine in 1997, it cut my electric bill in half! The payback time was about 8.5 years. As electric rates increased, the payback time decreased. I’ve had it now for 13 years, roughly five of those free, and my electric bill is about $25 a month (until my daughters come home with blow dryers and hair straighteners!).
> Buy a new one. Trade in your energy sucking fridge for an Energy Star Qualified fridge with the Cash for Appliances program. Energy Star refrigerators and freezers are 20% more efficient than the federal minimum requirements. Depending on how old your unit is, your pay-back time in lower utility bills could be very quick. Consider a propane refrigerator, too. How you can cool something with a flame is beyond me, but they are very efficient. They were designed for off-grid homes, boats and RVs (the one I had in a motor-home worked really well) where there is no plug-in.
