Refrigerator Energy Saving Tips

With the massive surge in new technology there’s one appliance that have been around for decades that I can’t imagine living without. This appliance is called the refrigerator. A refrigerator is probably the most commonly used appliance in our household and I believe it is safe to say that every household have one at least. Sadly though, the refrigerator is one of household’s highest consumer of energy but fear not I have some good news for you. We can maximize the use of our refrigerator by practicing simple-to-follow refrigeration energy saving tips and lessen the energy consumption of our refrigerator, which in turn can save us a lot of money. As featured on the recent Earth Hour worldwide event, saving energy can help the environment in its fight against pollution.

I have outlined most common refrigerator energy saving tips that we can put into practice in our daily lives:

1. Position the refrigerator away from direct sunlight.
2. Avoid placing other appliances that emulate heat (oven, stove and etc.) beside your refrigerator.
3. Setting the temperature of the fridge to 36° – 40° F and freezer to 0° - 5° F can save you as much as 20% – 25% from energy consumption. It is not practical to set the temperature much lower than this.
4. Having an empty or near empty refrigerator is a bad idea because it tends to keep the motor running and consume lots of energy with nothing to hold the cold temperature generated by the refrigeration. You can put a couple of containers filled with water as a remedy.
5. Avoid storing hot foods inside the refrigerator (unless the recipe requires for it). Let it cool first at room temperature before placing it inside the refrigerator.
6. When storing food, keep it covered.
7. On a regular basis, defrost manual frost freezers when the ice build-up is over ¼ inch. Since the motor works harder and thus consumes more energy.
8. Check door seal regularly and fix the damage (rubber or magnetic strip) since cold air will escape and this will make the refrigerator work harder and thus consume more energy.
9. Thawing frozen foods in the fridge helps cool the fridge as they defrost.
10. Keeping freezer full is good but overloading it is not. Just give at least 1 inch of space around for air to circulate.

By putting these simple refrigerator energy saving tips in practice, we can save money spent on electric bill and at the same time do our part as an individual in fighting pollution that will benefit everybody at the same time. For those who are interested to learn about energy saving at home, you can read this Simple Home Electricity Saving Tips.