Save Energy with the Fridge 
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It’s hard to imagine life without a fridge and freezer. Imagine not being able to reach out for some ice-cream or frozen peas.
Not long ago ice was shipped in from the Arctic to supply the ice-houses of the rich. Yet now we all have such ice-houses available, in the form of a nice white box that sits right in the kitchen where it’s needed.
The only downside is that these white boxes require energy to keep cold. And because a fridge is powered up 24hrs /day all year round, if there are savings to be had, make them here and they’ll soon add up.
HOW IT WORKS:
A fridge pumps the heat out of whatever you've put in it and expels that heat out of the radiator on the back. If you’ve ever felt the back of a fridge it can be quite warm – and that is the heat that has been pumped out of your slab of butter, bottle of white, or whatever else you’ve popped inside.
Fridges and freezers are in a constant battle with its surroundings. All the while the heat of the room is trying to warm it up. Take a glass and fill with ice cubes and you will soon see how strong the heat of the room is. Leave the glass and soon the room's heat melts the ice. The hotter the surroundings, the harder a fridge has to run – ie: it uses more energy.
For this reason it makes sense to keep the fridge / freezer in a place that is as cool as possible. Running a fridge where the surrounding heat is as low as possible will significantly help reduce its energy consumption.
POSITIVE STEPS:
Keep it away from the oven / radiator:
If your fridge is currently next to your oven or radiator, you’ll make huge savings if you move it somewhere less extreme. Both radiate vast quantities of heat into the fridge, meaning the poor thing has to run many, many times harder than it would otherwise.
Many kitchen installers seem to give little thought to the fact that putting a fridge next to an oven next means vastly higher energy use and running costs. Just not their problem I guess. But ultimately the fridge will die sooner when the compressor gives up the ghost from over-use.
So if your kitchen has the two next to each other, there’s a huge energy-saving opportunity awaiting.
Keep the sun off it:
If sunlight falls on it for an appreciable part of the day, it will be having a significant warming effect through ‘solar gain’. The sun’s rays will warm the cabinet and migrate through the insulation into the chilled area itself.
This makes the heat pump work harder to bring the temperature back down.
(If you want to demonstrate it for yourself, take two glasses of ice and put one in the sun and one in the shade… and watch the mighty power of solar gain !)
So if your fridge / freezer is in the sun, simply moving it to a shadier spot will at a stroke reduce its power consumption for good.
Keep hot out
Since the fridge has worked very hard to drop the temperature inside it, it makes good sense to do everything you can to help keep it that way. Anytime you introduce heat into the fridge it will have to run harder.
Heat can come from food you put in that hasn't properly cooled down. Or, less avoidably, the warm air when you open the door. Making a habit of opening the door to the minimum and closing it promptly will make a noticeable difference to your fridge energy consumption.
Defrost it !
Not always the most fun of jobs, but defrosting a freezer / fridge will help it run much more efficiently. Defrosting means your fridge will use less energy, will be operating at its optimum, and live longer.
You can minimise the build up of frost in by keeping the door shut as much as possible and never putting warm things in the fridge.
Be the best
There are a number of really energy efficient fridges out there at the moment, so if you’re getting a new one, it’s a great chance to get the best.
Luckily labelling on white goods like these allows for easy comparison between different models. And there's a huge range in energy consumption out there.
