Quick Tip Of The Day - Is Your Fridge / Freezer Running Well?

A reader (thanks Mathew! That’s not him pictured by the way.) sent us this little story a while back that I thought might be of interest to you all:

“Today my fridge/freezer packed up. Well, actually it is my landlord’s, so I did not get the back off of it straight away. I called the support line and they said that they could get the engineer out for £100. I told my landlord and he said he would handle it. I knew what this meant - a long time with warm beer! I decided to get the back off and see what was wrong. There was a huge ‘cat size’ quantity of fluff blocking the vent that had accrued over seven years or so. I removed this et voila! Fridge/freezer sprang back into life. Within minutes everything was tickety-boo. The only downside was that the compressor was no longer muffled as much as it used to be, hence more noise in the kitchen.

Lesson learned? Pull the fridge/freezer out and remove whatever fluff there is. The machine works more efficiently thereafter, therefore saving electricity. I advise you and all of your readers to do likewise, who knows it could be warm beer for you too if you don’t take the same precautions.”

And no-one likes warm beer do they? Another couple of tips he suggested were getting rid of any ice build-ups (sounds like a job for a quiet Sunday afternoon), and also checking the seal around the door is working properly. You shouldn’t be able to slid a piece of paper between the seal and the fridge or freezer.

Is Your Fridge A Work Of Art?

As a follow up to our Save $100 Per Year With A New Fridge article a few weeks ago (which highlighted the US Department of Energy’s Recycle My Fridge campaign), they now have an Art Fridge competition.

There will be a National Fridge Art Exhibition and celebration event at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C USA, from August 25th to September 2nd, 2008. Organizations and people actively participating in the campaign are encouraged to decorate their recycled refrigerators and submit images for consideration for the exhibit at the National Building Museum.

Submit high-resolution digital photos of a decorated refrigerator or refrigerator door (like the one pictured where for some reason Ben Franklin is doing a spot of painting), as well as a 250-word project and program description, including artists’ names and materials by July 15th, 2008 to Dana Schallheim at dschallheim [at] drintl [dot] com. Refrigerators can be decorated using any visual medium, and incorporation of recycled art materials is encouraged. Entries will be selected by a distinguished judging panel based on photos and submitted descriptions. Award categories include: Coolest, Best Use of Recycled Materials, and “Best Portrayal of the Campaign Theme, “The Time is Right.” Up to three winners will be awarded a trip for two to Washington, D.C.

For people who aren’t interested in exhibiting but would like to check out the “cool” exhibit (very funny), mark your calendars and make plans to visit the National Building Museum in Washington D.C, USA between August 25th and September 2nd 2008. For more info, and a video from Ben Franklin, check out the Recycle My Old Fridge website.

Save $100 Per Year with A New Fridge

I’m not one for throwing out products you already have for more eco-friendly ones (like a guy I knew who threw out a perfectly good table to buy a recycled one as he felt it made him look better). However sometimes it can be worth it, if the products you have are harmful, or they’re very energy inefficient.

Energy efficiency is sometimes a hard thing to achieve for a eco-minded person. Is it better to throw out an old refrigerator to buy an energy efficient one? What about the energy that is used to create the new fridge, will using it make up for the amount your old one wasted?

Well now you can have help to work this out, at least in part. The US Department of Energy has a calculator so you can determine how much energy your fridge consumes, and how much energy & money you can save by opting for a new Energy Star model (Energy Star fridges must adhere to even stricter criteria starting April 28).

The calculator allows you to input how much you pay for electricity and the model of your current fridge. If you don’t know this, don’t worry you can work it out based on approx year made, size and configuration. If you have an old fridge, why not give it a try?

If everyone who purchases a new refrigerator in 2008 in the US chooses a model that meets the new ENERGY STAR criteria instead of a non-qualified model, consumers will save enough energy each year to:

• Light every household in Washington, D.C. for over 20 months.
• Power an ENERGY STAR qualified 32” high definition LCD screen television for 640,000 years of non-stop viewing.
• Launch the space shuttle into orbit 298 times.
• Equal the amount of energy generated by burning 25million gallons of gasoline.

Recycling your old fridge:

• Buys you coffee for nearly 80 days!
• Saves enough energy to light ten 13-watt ENERGY STAR qualified light bulbs, one after another, for 70 years!
• Saves enough energy this year to freeze ice cubes in a new ENERGY STAR fridge for more than 2 years.