Local Knowledge About Refrigerators (Ultra High Efficiency)

The energy bill for a typical new refrigerator with automatic defrost and top-mounted freezer will be about $55-$75/year, whereas a typical model sold in 1973 will cost nearly $160/year. Most of the energy used by a refrigerator is used to pump heat out of the cabinet. A small amount is used to keep the cabinet from sweating, to defrost the refrigerator, and to illuminate the interior. Although many energy-efficient products may be more expensive to purchase, they will cost less to operate over the lifetime of the appliance. For example, a more expensive model could pay for itself in three to five years when compared to the purchase price plus the operating cost of less efficient models. Over the 15-year lifetime, the more expensive refrigerator might save $750! Ultra high efficiency models use only a fraction of the energy of conventional models because they were originally designed to operate with solar electric systems.