efficient 20 cu' Refrigerator/Freezer [RE-wrenches]

[Joel Davidson]

I encourage people to get a copy of the "Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings"
from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, 1001 Connecticut Ave.
NW, Suite 801, Washington, DC 20036 Tel: 202-429-0063 <http://aceee.org> Highly
recommended.

Refrigerators are getting more efficient. I bought a 25 cu ft Amana side-by-side
refrigerator/freezer in 1989 for $1200 that consumes 1199 kWh/year (model
SX25J). In 1998, a similar unit (model SRD25) cost about the same but used 765
kWh/year. I don't recommend the new unit as it has a through-the-door ice maker.
The "Guide" lists a more efficient 25 cu ft refrigerator like the Whirlpool ED25
at 641 kWh/year.

Sunfrost did a good job optimizing the Danfoss BD2.5 compressor, but it was a
$30 million utility-sponsored award for the most environmentally safe
refrigerator that really changed the old ice box. Whirlpool won the prize in
1993. A couple of frige factoids. The average energy consumption for
refrigerators dropped from 1800 kWh/year in 1972 to 856 kWh/year in 1991. The
bad news is Americans consume a lot of refrigerators. Californians buy more than
1.2 million new refrigerators every year.
Joel Davidson
"The icecaps are melting to wash away our sins." Tiny Tim.


Allan Sindelar wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Palumbo, Independent Power & Light" <ipl at sover.net>
> > What were the numbers on the efficient Maytag that people were talking
> about
> > a year or so ago?
>
> The MTB1956DE was 18.5 ft, rated at 485 kwh/yr, or 1.33 kwh/day. We used one
> for 2 1/2 years in our offgrid home. It worked very well. We measured
> 1.4-1.8 kwh/day, depending on season, but with three young children, that
> seemed about right. It was our biggest house load at about 40% (WAG) of
> typical daily production from our optimized 1 kW array.
>
> Five months ago we put in a 5-year old RF-16 SunFrost that came in second
> hand. It's 24V DC, so I can't monitor its usage as easily. It's noticeably
> more efficient, but not by THAT much. And every month or two the Sun Frost
> needs defrosting, even here in the high desert. The SF is a little quieter,
> but the Maytag is hard to clean the dust out of the fan and coils.
>
> At $700 retail plus more PV, vs. $3,000 retail (with freight and all) the
> balance tips toward the conventional unit for many. We now steer many
> offgrid clients toward the best conventional units. I'd probably go back to
> the Maytag.
>
> Allan @PosEn
>
> - - - -

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