Is your refrigerator energy-efficient?

Is your refrigerator energy-efficient?

All of us have a refrigerator at our homes, but do we ever think how much it costs us in terms of electricity charges? Refrigerator is the only one appliance which runs constantly 24/7 and the cost of running a refrigerator can be up to 10% of our entire eclectic bill. 

Luckily new technologies work of improving energy-efficiency of new refrigerator models. They can look the same outside as they used to look 10-15 years ago, but inside there have been some dramatic energy efficiency improvements. The more energy efficient a refrigerator is, the lower your utility bill will be each month.

So when buying a new refrigerator there are really two price tags. The initial purchase price can be considered as the down payment. Yes, sometimes energy efficient models can be more expensive than less efficient units. But within years these energy-efficient models can be a better value; they have better insulation and more efficient compressors and at the same time are more energy-saving. If you buy cheaper refrigerator which missing new energy-saving features, you will be paying the second price tag on your monthly utility bill during all lifetime of refrigerator, or for about 10-15 years. Recent studies show that within 15 years you could spend as little as $277 or as much as $2,900 on electric bills for your refrigerator. We are not that rich to buy cheap thing, if you think about this way, as $2,900 is a price of new refrigerator.

There is a nice web-resource which can help evaluate energy-efficiency of your appliances and other home gadgets - http://www.enervee.com/. You can type in your zip code and the program will help you to calculate electric costs for different refrigerator models using time frame from 1 year to up to 20 years considering the price per kilowatt in your particular area. They score all products from 0 to 100 and you can use this info when buying a new fridge or any other appliance.  It shows that average refrigerator score is 63, some Whirlpool and LG models have Energy Score 100. Very useful resource in my opinion.

by D&V Appliance Repair