Replacing Your Refrigerator for Energy Savings

Feb 22, 2010 | Energy Efficiency

Snapshot | Savings | How to choose | Environmental benefits | Rebates | Take action!

Your refrigerator can consume more electricity than any appliance in your home-accounting for up to 18% of your home's electrical use.

If your refrigerator is 10 years or older, you can save big money by replacing it. The new refrigerators sip electricity compared to their predecessors, and downsizing to a smaller fridge saves you even more money. For some customers, a new fridge can pay for itself in less than two years.

When shopping for refrigerators, read the yellow ENERGY STAR® label to compare energy requirements. For best efficiency, choose models using no more than 600 kWh.

A new refrigerator could pay for itself in 2 years-and then help you pocket money you would have spent to power your old energy-guzzling fridge. Replacing your 1990s-era refrigerator, for example, could save you anywhere from $125 to $360 per year depending on your utility rate (this is based on a range of 14 to 40 cents per kWh).

Even a 10-year-old refrigerator can use twice the energy of a new one. Technology improvements in insulation and compressors make today's refrigerators much more efficient than older models

Below: Today's refrigerators use as little as one-fifth the electricity of fridges of 30 years ago. The most energy-efficient use even less than a 60-watt incandescent light bulb!

Chart: WattzOn; data from U.S. Department of Energy

Consider replacing your refrigerator or freezer if it's more than 10 years old, especially if it's not working well. In fact, some local utilities are so eager to get these old energy abusers off the electricity grid, they'll pick them up and pay you cash.

While any new model is an improvement over a 10- or 20-year-old refrigerator, if you want to maximize the energy efficiency, follow these steps when making a purchase:

1. Check where you'll put the fridge. Make sure it won't be next to warm appliances, such as your dishwasher and stove. Measure the space where the refrigerator will sit and make sure there is enough room to open the door of the fridge.

2. Downsize: Consider a smaller refrigerator for extra energy savings.

3. Skip the ice and water in-the-door dispenser features. They increase energy use as much as 20%.

4. Look for refrigerators with the freezer on top or bottom. These are the most efficient models, using 10% to 25% less energy than other models.

5. Look for the yellow ENERGY STAR label (see the example below). They are the most efficient.

• Ignore the top number on the label, since it's an energy-use estimate that might be based on a utility rate that's lower than yours.

• Read the lower number stating annual estimated electricity use. Your best bet is a fridge that uses no more than 600 kWh. Need a lot of refrigeration? Even 2 smaller ENERGY STAR-qualified refrigerators combine to be more efficient than one large one that's not ENERGY STAR qualified.

Many older refrigerators qualify as toxic waste. They use Freon, a brand name for "R-12," a now-banned refrigerant that contains chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that deplete the planet's ozone layer, in addition to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a carcinogen.

Older refrigerators can also leak Freon.

If you dispose of a refrigerator, be sure to have it picked up by a qualified recycling firm that handles the hazardous materials chemicals properly and recycles the metal and plastics. Call your power utility or trash-collection service. Some utility companies, such as California's Pacific Gas & Electric, will pick up your old fridge and even pay you a small fee for it.

Taking an old fridge out of operation reduces your home's-and your community's-unnecessarily high energy draw off your power sources. Since 70% of U.S. power comes from coal and natural gas, that will be reducing the need for carbon-emitting power sources that contribute to global climate change and compromised air quality.

Refrigerator rebates for San Francisco Bay area utility customers include:

Utility

Rebate Summary

Getting Started

Alameda Municipal Power

$35 and free pickup of old refrigerator

$100 and free pickup if replaced with new ENERGY STAR model.

Call 1-866-964-7346 for pickup

Program Details

City of Palo Alto Utilities

$50 rebate for purchase of an ENERGY STAR refrigerator

$35 and free pickup of old refrigerato

Program Details

Pickup: Contact JACO Environmental for pickup or call 1-800-299-7537

Pacific Gas & Electric

$35 and free pickup of old refrigerator

Contact JACO Environmental for pickup or call 1-800-299-7537

Silicon Valley Power

$35 and free pickup of old refrigerator

$50 off for purchase of a new ENERGY STAR refrigerator (must recycle old fridge)

Contact JACO Environmental for pickup or call 1-800-577-0510

Program Details

Buy an energy-efficient refrigerator