How to Reduce Your Refrigerator’s Energy Consumption

Believe it or not old refrigerators can be made to operate more efficiently if they aren’t already. There are a few maintenance tips that can be done quite easily and improve the efficiency of a refrigerator. A few of these tips are as follows:

âÂ?¢Encourage air flow around the condenser under the fridge by periodically cleaning dust away with a brush. This extends the life of the fridge compressor which is the most expensive part of a fridge. “A refrigerator with a clean condenser coil will release heat more efficiently, operate with less strain on the mechanical parts, and draw less current. Essentially, your appliance will do a better job for less money.” (www.motherearthnews.com)

�Maintain the seal around the fridge door. This seal is called the gasket. If air can freely flow through the gasket the fridge is not sealed properly and energy can be lost making the fridge less efficient.

�A refrigerator temperature of 37 degrees Fahrenheit and a freezer temperature of 3 degrees is believed to be ideal and economical. At these temperatures the fridge can still operate effectively and be more efficient on energy consumption than if set at higher temperatures.

�If the refrigerator one is using always has a lot of empty space it might be too big for your needs. In this case, It may be possible to exchange it for a more efficient and less expensive fridge to operate.

âÂ?¢Employ a fridge timer to prevent excess and redundant use of electricity. A timer may already be built into the fridge but if it doesn’t the additional expense may be worth it.

�Removing fridge lights can also have an influence on the fridges energy consumption and these lights may be redundant if there is plenty of light in the room to see in the fridge.

The rest is good common sense; leaving the fridge and freezer doors open for as little time as possible and reading the refrigerator manual (if it is still around) can point out how the refrigerator operates and which control settings do what. Familiarity with the fridge features will enable one to better adjust the settings for maximum efficiency and the manufacturer may have information on the model number if the manual is lost. If the old fridge still has life in it and can be run fairly efficiently, it may not be a good time to invest in an energy star fridge just yet and just because it isn’t an energy star fridge doesn’t mean it can’t be run more efficiently.

References:

http://powerscorecard.org/reduce_energy.cfm
http://www.modernghana.com/GhanaHome/NewsArchive/n ews_details.asp?id=VFZSTk1VMVVhM2c9&menu_id=1_menu_i d=0