I was wondering how energy efficient my 17 year old GE fridge was so plugged it into my Kill-A-Watt meter. After 24 hours it read 2.25 kWH and happened to notice it pulled 160 watts when the compressor runs. Curious how that compares to anybody that has a new fridge?
My fridge used 2.2 kWH @24 hours - how does that compare?
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Bought a new one this year replacing the 30 year old one. Cruises at a hundred watts when it is running. Dang site better than the 300+ the old one did and the defrost cycle is half the watts of the old one.
Offset with the energy star ones is that they run longer. Haven't taken a 24 hour on this one. Need to do that.
Offset with the energy star ones is that they run longer. Haven't taken a 24 hour on this one. Need to do that.
Lake Girl
Moderator
21.2 cu ft. GE uses approx. 480 kwh/year ... http://products.geappliances.com/Ma...r?RequestType=PDF&Name=Energy label-GIE21.pdf
sloeffle
Minister of Fire
If I remember correctly, ours uses .7kWh per day. It is a french door Kitchen Aid we bought a couple years ago.
Our 22 year old 21.6 cu ft side-by-side Whirlpool takes 3 kwh/day as measured by the Kill-A-Watt meter. That's 1095 kwh/yr, or about 1/6 of our total non-heating electrical usage in a year, and about $125/yr at our local electric rate. A similar Energy Star side-by-side bought new would cost $1500-2000, use about 600 kwh/yr and save about $55/yr in electricity cost. Simple payback (1500/55 or 2000/55) is 27-36 years. My current PV system produces 9000 kwh/yr and saves $1035 in annual electric cost. Based on the PV system cost of $22,000, simple PV payback is 21 years.
PV is a much better value than a new refrigerator if the goal of the new refrigerator is to save electric cost. Plus, PV should have a life span of at least 25 years, probably longer, and it has enduring value if and when we might sell our home while a new refrigerator is unlikely to last nearly as long and adds little or no value on sale of our home.
Conclusion: invest in PV if saving electric cost is the goal; buy a new refrigerator if the old one is kaput.
PV is a much better value than a new refrigerator if the goal of the new refrigerator is to save electric cost. Plus, PV should have a life span of at least 25 years, probably longer, and it has enduring value if and when we might sell our home while a new refrigerator is unlikely to last nearly as long and adds little or no value on sale of our home.
Conclusion: invest in PV if saving electric cost is the goal; buy a new refrigerator if the old one is kaput.
The "goal" was to convince myself the noisy refrigerator had a legit reason to get replaced. But with a local electricity rate of 11.04 cents /kWh then I am only paying 25 cents a day to run it, or $90 a year. I guess I'll keep running it until it has a failure.
What is PV? Photovoltaic?
What is PV? Photovoltaic?
I discovered, by use of killawatt, that refers just don't use much energy at all. They also deliver the waste heat to your living area which in my case is always a positive.
Another thing that would irritate the energy article writers is that these wall warts don't add up to squat.
Yes
This is a positive for me also. We often need heat through May, sometimes into June, and starting in September. Using those refer kw twice probably works out to a pretty low actual cost for the electricity.
Lake Girl
Moderator
If you shop for a new fridge be careful what size you get. Some fridges don't do well trapped between cabinets or built into a surround. It depends on where the coils are located and whether the fridge is designed for it. They need to exhaust out and not count on passive air flow. Something to think about, because even the best fridge won't work well if it can't get rid of the heat.
Some parts of the country can always use the heat. We don't even have an AC system. House stays warmer in the winter than summer.
Lake Girl
Moderator
No AC here either ... usually the breeze off the lake is enough. Made a mistake in taking the window out of the utility room near the kitchen ... should have left it in to help "exhaust" the warmth from the freezer and fridge motors.
The living area is where most of the heat came from in the first place.
The heat that didn't come from there is waste heat from the compressor, so it came from the electric company, and its heating value is the same as resistance heat. It's a net zero benefit at best, and a loss if you have a lower cost source of heat available (heat pump, natural gas, firewood, etc).
However, drawing 2.2 kWh/day doesn't seem to leave a huge amount of room for improvement, although the year round average will probably be different. Typical fridges these days will use about 1.5 kWh/day on average. Better models might be closer 1 kWh/day.
So I wouldn't be in a rush to replace it, although 17 years is a respectable life for a refrigerator, and I'm sure you can find a quieter model if it's worth it to you.
While we're on the topic, I stumbled across this interesting graph of average refrigerator energy use over time, including notes of major relevant dates, like the first California refrigerator performance standard in 1978 and the first federal standard in 1990.
(broken link removed to http://www.appliance-standards.org/sites/default/files/Refrigerator%20Graph_July_2011.PDF)
The decline is dramatic - from over 1400 kWh/year (3.8 kWh/day) in 1980 to barely 500 kWh/year (1.4 kWh/day) in 2010.
The green line (cost) confused me briefly - $550 is a bottom of the line refrigerator, not an average unit - but a footnote at the bottom clarifies it is based on manufacturer price charged to retailer, presumably because the data comes from the manufacturers, who don't necessarily know the final sales price to the consumer.
(broken link removed to http://www.appliance-standards.org/sites/default/files/Refrigerator%20Graph_July_2011.PDF)
The decline is dramatic - from over 1400 kWh/year (3.8 kWh/day) in 1980 to barely 500 kWh/year (1.4 kWh/day) in 2010.
The green line (cost) confused me briefly - $550 is a bottom of the line refrigerator, not an average unit - but a footnote at the bottom clarifies it is based on manufacturer price charged to retailer, presumably because the data comes from the manufacturers, who don't necessarily know the final sales price to the consumer.
Circus
Feeling the Heat
It's OK. A new fridge would not last long enough to save the cost of replacing. I think noise is good enough reason though.
For those with 40 year old fridges it's a different story. When I replaced my 40 year old fridge I disassembled it and found all its fiberglas insulation soaking wet. The new fridge paid for itself in six years.
7 year old, top freezer 19cu ft Maytag 1.35 kwh/ day
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Where2
Feeling the Heat
Other parts of the country never need that refrigerator heat... My Nest thermostat is still set to cool. Lows might actually get into the 50's later this week. Consequently, my wife will finally want to open the windows!
I had toyed with the idea of if a new fridge would save money for a long time. Waking up to a dead fridge and stuff starting to thaw out made my mind up pretty fast. As to noise, this sucker is twice as noisy some of them really weird, than the old one. But kind of entertaining.
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Mine measured 2.06KWH per day average. Lots of variation as to how many opening and closing etc.
I put the Kill-O-Watt on my new 18.2 foot fridge yesterday. In 23 hours and 21 minutes it has used .55 KWH. Electric cost, six cents.
Nice. It should be higher in the summer, but it shouldn't be radically different.
Lower than I expected. I am letting it run another 24 hours. Since it is 20 something feet on the same floor from the wood stove and we use A/C in hot weather it may not be more in Summer.
The most efficient new ones are abot 1 kwh/day (~345 kwh/year for the whirlpool model listed below)
http://www.whirlpool.com/kitchen-1/refrigeration-2/refrigerators-3/-[WRT359SFYM]-1001696/WRT359SFYM/
I believe that the Energy Star consumption ratings are based on 90 degree F ambient temperature - real-world operating conditions (if the manufacturer, who is doing an unsupervised test, is not stretching the truth) should result in better performance (lower kWh usage).
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