Gas Dryers and Washing Machines [RE-wrenches]

[Steve Willey, Backwoods Solar]

Thanks, Travis, for the watt hour figures on washers and Neptune. A table of
these contributed by various experiences of wrenches could be a valuable
reference.

Until more than one inch foam insulation is used on refrigerators, I would
say manufacturers have NOT gone as far as they can. Those of you selling or
using Conserv freezer proves the benefit of better insulation. In my
experience you can cut power use in half by going from 1 to 2.5 or 3 inches
all around a refrigerator.  Of course you cannot just add on outside a
freezer as the wall skin is used as a heat radiator!!

Vestfrost / Conserv could build a larger one with very little increase in
power usage, because volume goes up with little surface area increase.  The
factory rep is interested in pushing for this, so if you think there is a
market for a 15 cu ft or so, he asks that you call him and also call Kyocera
and get them to request it.

Here are some tips about the Conserv Chest freezer:
It often comes with factory set inside temp range of -20 to - 5F.  This is
too cold to make good energy sense and makes even the best ice cream to hard
to serve.  We have discovered a way to change the range of the control knob
to -5 to +8 and that seems to work better, and cuts typical use from 1200
watt hours a day to 850 on hottest days, as low as 500 watt hours in 70
degree days. It takes a small hard to find torx driver which we loan
customers... but not having it here I cannot recall if size is number 7 or
8.

The Vestfrost/conserv factory rep in US is Adrian Whitney Smith at
850-647-3889, . admarint at digitalexp.com.
very helpful with technical info that Kyocera people cannot seem to get.  By
the way the rumor that the freezer is being discontinued is completely
false, he says.

Steve Willey   www.backwoodssolar.com
Backwoods Solar Electric Systems
> My newer (1 yr old) Amana 21 cu. ft bottom freezer fridge is using just
over
> 1.8 kWh's per day @ 80f.   It's yellow tag rated it at 576 kwh's  per
year.
> I found it to be using something like 1.2 when the kitchen was under 70f.
I
> subscribe to several energy trade journals and they are talking about the
> next generation of motor driven appliances are going to be using much more
> advanced motors within a few years.  It seems that manufacturers have gone
> about as far as they can with non-motor efficiency improvements.  It
sounds
> promising that within several years we should be able to appliances
locally
> that are ideal for RE systems.
>
> Travis Creswell
> Ozark Solar


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